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AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 



THE ACADIANS 



Efteir ©eportation anlr MantieringiBf 



TOGETHER WITH A CONSIDERATION OF THE HISTORICAL BASIS 

FOR Longfellow's poem 

EVANGELINE 

JVzt/i extracts from the original documents bearing upon the subject, and illustrations 

of scenes in and around Grand-Pre and Annapolis, Nova Scotia 

" the Land of Evangeline." 



BY 

GEORGE P. BIBLE, A. M 




FERRIS & LEACH 

27 and 29 SOUTH SEVENTH STREET 
1906 



USRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Conies Receiv^-cl 

AUG 21 »906 

CUS/ CX- XKc. NO, 
' COPY B. 



Copyright, 1906, by Ferris & Leach 



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PKEFACE 

If every book must have a preface, and every 
author an excuse for writing it, then we will briefly 
explain why this book asks for a hearing. 

Every student of literature has read Longfellow's 
beautiful poem, ^' Evangeline," and generations yet 
unborn will read and re-read it with increasing inter- 
est as the years go by. Indeed, while lovers love and 
hearts are true, the story of Evangeline will never 
lose its charm. 

With its historic setting, it will always enlist our 
sympathies and command our admiration for the 
loyalty, simplicity and self-sacrifice of these home- 
loving Acadian peasants. The reader naturally asks 
how much of the poem is historically true, and where 
he may find something more definite relating to this 
people, without searching through musty records, to 
find, here and there, bits of information upon the 
subject. 

Our smaller histories merely mention the incident 
of their expulsion, and lack of space prevents their 
throwing any additional sidelight upon the subject. 
We have, therefore, compiled from the most recent 
and authentic sources, supplemented by a trip 



6 Preface. 

through that country, a brief sketch of the Acadian, 
his early struggles, his home life, cruel deportation, 
the confiscation of his property and destruction of his 
home; his treatment in exile and his wanderings in 
search of his kith and kin for twenty-five years fol- 
lowing their separation. We have endeavored to give 
something of the life of his descendants as now found 
in the Madawaska country in the northeastern part 
of Maine and the adjacent parts of New Brunswick, 
on the St. John's River; on the shores of St. Mary's 
Bay, in INTova Scotia; and in the Teche country, in 
Louisiana. 

We beKeve every reader of the poem will want to 
read this historical sketch, and we are sure every 
reader of the sketch will re-read with renewed inter- 
est the beautiful poem. 



Our acknowledgment and sincere thanks are due to 
the Hon. C. H. Mouton, of Lafayette, Louisiana, and 
to Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, Joseph 
A. Breaux, of l^ew Orleans, Louisiana, for valuable 
information furnished to the author concerning the 
Acadian of the Teche country, and for permission to 
publish extracts from their letters. The sketch of 
the wooden chest, a valuable heirloom of the family. 



Preface. 7 

was made by Mr. C. H. Mouton, a man over eighty 
years old at the time the sketch was made (1903). 

To the Mouton ancestry may be correctly traced 
the original historic incident, which in after years 
gave Longfellow the basis for his " Evangeline." 
This accounts for the grave of the real Evangeline 
being located in the Teche comitry of the South, 
while the poet has given Philadelphia as the last rest- 
ing place of his beautiful creation. 

G. P. B. 

Philadelphia, 

May, 1906. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 
Acadia — Origin of Name — Location — Les Mines — Minas 17-20 

CHAPTER II. 

French Settlements — Port Royal — Quebec — De Monts — 

Samuel Champlain — Defeat of the Iroquois Indians 21-24 

CHAPTER III. 

Recollet and Jesuit Missionaries — Capture of the Fort 
at Quebec by Captain Kirk — Imprisonment of 
Champlain in England 25-26 

CHAPTER IV. \\ 

Acadia Proper — Abandonment of the Settlement at Port 
Royal, 1607— Arrival of Poutrincourt, 1610, with 
Additional Families — Destruction by Captain Argall 
—1621, Attempt at Settlement by Sir Wm. Alex- 
ander — Treaty of St. Germains Restores Nova 
Scotia, or Acadia, and New Brunswick to France — 
1654, Captains Sedgwick and John Leverett Take 
Possession of Acadia — Under English Rule until 
1664 27-30 



Contents. 9 

CHAPTER V. 

Grants to Charles La Tour and D'Aulnay-Charnisay by 
Louis XIII — Erection of Forts — Quarrels with the 
English — Growth of Acadia — Quarrel between La 
Tour and Charnisay — La Tour's Fort — Defense by 
Madame La Tour — Capture by Charnisay and Mas- 
sacre of the Garrison — Death of Madame La Tour- 
Return of Charles La Tour — Death of Charnisay — 
Phipps' Expedition — Pirates — 1671, Settlement of 
Minas 31-40 

/ 
CHAPTER Vl 

Marquette and Joliet on the Mississippi — La Salle's 
Explorations — His Representations to the French 
King — DTberville and Others in the South — Settle- 
ment at Biloxi — Founding of Xew Orleans, 1718 . . 41-43 

CHAPTER VII. 

1710, Final Conquest of Acadia by the English — Oath 
of Allegiance — Home Life of the Acadians — Their 
Character, Habits and Occupations — " Neutrals " — • 
Religion 44-49 

CHAPTER VIIL 

Father Rasle — Character — Labors among the Indians — 
Erects a Church — Dictionary of the Abenaki Lan- 
guage — Murder of the Priest by the English — 
Destruction of the Church — Monument to the 
Memory of Father Rasle 50-52 



10 Contents. 

CHAPTER IX. 

French Efforts to Control the Valleys of the St. Law- 
rence and Mississippi — String of Forts — Louisbourg 
— Quebec — Crown Point — ^Le Boeuf — Venango — Du- 
quesne — Detroit — Toledo — ^New Orleans — Capture of 
Louisbourg 53-56 



CHAPTER X. 

Land of Evangeline — Grand-Pre — Minas — Description — 
Troubles of the "Neutrals" with the French and 
English — Their Efforts to Preserve their Neutral- 
ity — Outrages Committed by Both French and 
English Soldiery — French Orders to the Acadians — 
Reply of the People — ^Mascarene, English Governor 
— Father La Loutre — ^His Attempts to Seduce them 
from their Allegiance to the English 57-63 



CHAPTER XI. 

Expedition of Colonel Arthur Noble — ^Arrival at Grand- 
Pr6 — Vv^inter Quarters — ^Warning of the Acadians — 
Expedition of De Villiers — Massacre of the Eng- 
lish—Death of Colonel Noble 64-70 



CHAPTER XII. 

Chebucto — Halifax — Cornwallis — Le Blanc and Melan- 
son Call on the New Governor — Their Request — 
Refusal — La Loutre — Death of Captain Howe — 
Effect on the "Neutrals" of the Acts of their 
Brethren Under French Domination , 71-74 



Contents. 11 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Governor Hopson — His Orders to the Soldiers — Condi- 
tion of the Acadians Under Hopson — Growth and 
Improvement of the Country — Charles Lawrence — 
His Tyranny and Oppression — Seizure of Arras — 
Changes the Oath of Allegiance so as Make the 
Acadians Take Up Arms Against the French — 
Appeal of the Acadians — They Rely on the Origi- 
nal Oath which Made Them " Neutrals " — Reply of 
Lawrence — Imprisonment of Petitioners at Halifax 75-85 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Expedition of Monckton and Colonel Winslow — Arrival 
of Transports — Assembling of the Men and Boys in 
the Village Church of Grand-Pr6 Under Orders of 
Colonel Winslow — 5th of September — Winslow in 
the Church Reads the Order of Expulsion — Terror 
and Distress of the People — Prisoners in their Own 
Church — Burning of Houses and Barns by the Sol- 
diery — Proposed Distribution of the Acadians 86-96 

CHAPTER XV. 

The Embarkation — ^Request that Families May Not be 
Separated — Affecting Scenes — Entire Country Ex- 
cept Grand-Pre Desolated by Fire — Final Em- 
barkation — Destruction of Grand-Pre — Desolation — 
English Settlers 97-101 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Distribution of the Exiles in the English Colonies — ^Un- 
welcome Guests — Testimonials as to their Charac- 
ter — Exiles in Philadelphia, New York, Maryland, 
Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia — Lawrence's 
Continued Persecution 102-108 



12 Contents. 

CHAPTER XVII. 

The Exiles in Massachusetts — ^Hunting them Through 
the Forests of Acadia — Petition to the Council at 
Boston 109-111 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

The Return of the Exiles — Efforts to Reach Acadia — 
Sufferings — Dispersions — Few Reach the Old Home, 
to Find it Occupied by the English — Trials of those 
who Escaped the Expatriation at Annapolis — Flee 
to Argyl Bay and the Tusket Lakes — Are Again 
Forced to Flee — Various Settlements of French 
Fugitives 112-122 

CHAPTER XIX. 

The Madawaska Settlement — Accounts of Messrs. Dean 
and Davies — Their Manners and Customs — Rev, 
Charles W. Collins' Statement 123-133 

CHAPTER XX. 

Bayou Teche Settlement — Cable's Description — Fortier 
— Judge Joseph A. Breaux's Description — The 
" Cadian " or " Cajan " 134-137 

CHAPTER XXI. 

The Real Evangeline — The Story of Emmeline Labiche, 
as Handed Down by Tradition in the Mouton family 
— Communicated by Senator Mouton to Longfel- 
low 138-141 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

OPP. PAGE 

:Map of the Acadian Settlements 17 

Annapolis (Port Royal) 21 

Magazine in Old Fokt, Annapolis 28 

Ruins of French Fort, Annapolis 38 

Old Church at Grand-Pre, built 1804 44 

Old Poplar Trees, Grand-Pre 48 

Gaspereau Valley and Village 57 

Woleville (Grand-Pre in distance to right) 66 

Gaspereau River ( Falmouth in distance ) 88 

Old Well and Willows in Front of Church, Grand - 
Pee 91 

Grand-Pre Meadows 99 

Cobnwallis 112 

Old Blacksmith Shop on the site of the one used by 
the Acadians, Grand-Pre 121 

Wooden Chest belonging to an Acadian Exile 147 



AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 

THE ACADIANS 

Zi)tix JBeportation anti ?l2Ianticrtnss 





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THE 
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CHAPTER I. 

THE LAND OF THE ACADIANS. 

This i-s the forest primeval ; but ichere are the hearts that beneath it 

Leaped like the roe, when he hears in the woodland the voice of the huntsman f 

Where is the thatch-roofed village, the home of Acadian farmers, — 

3Ien whose lives glided on like rivers that water the woodlands. 

Darkened by shadows of earth, but reflecting an image of heaven^ 

Waste are those pleasant farms, and the farmers forever departed! 

Scattered like dust a7id leaves, when the mighty blasts of October 

Seize them, and whirl them aloft, and sprinkle them far o'er the ocean. 

Naught but tradition remains of the beautiful village of Grand-Pre. 

Ye icho believe in affection that hopes, and endures, and is patient. 
Ye who believe in the beauty and strength of a woman's devotion. 
List to the mournful tradition still sung by the pines of the forest; 
List to a tale of Love in Acadie, home of the happy. 

The history of Acadia and its early settlers, the 
Acadians, has a peculiar and fascinating interest for 
the student of history and romance. It is a story 
filled with deeds of daring and bravery, of hardships 
and privations similar to those of the early pioneers 
of our o^vn colonial days, but without the reward to 
their posterity which ultimately became the heritage 
of the children of the English pioneers. After the 
lapse of nearly a century and a half since their expul- 
sion, when the heat of passion and the prejudice of 
the earlier days have been tempered and mellowed 
by time, when from the musty records of colonial 
documents, and the diaries of some of the principal 
actors in the great drama, historians have dug out the 
facts, — ^we are enabled to get near in spirit to this 
people, who were so little understood or appreciated 
in the days of their exile and wanderings. 

In order to understand the alleged necessity for. 



18 Historical Sketch of the Acadians, 

but the absolute cruelty of, the expulsion of the 
Acadians, one must read carefully the story of the 
early explorations and settlements of the French and 
English in America; the struggle for supremacy of 
these two ancient enemies; their differences of char- 
acter, temperament and religion; the overlapping 
grants of territory; the indefinite boundaries; the 
uncertainty which attached to rights acquired by dis- 
covery, and the claiming of vast expanses of terri- 
tory, of the extent of which both the early explorer 
and the claimants were ignorant. It is also important 
to note the distinction between the Acadian and the 
French Canadian and the French of the State of 
Louisiana. 

Acadia, as originally known to the French and 
Fnglish, embraced part of the State of Maine, all of 
^ew Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, 
the island of Cape Breton, and the smaller islands of 
the E'ortheast. The Acadia of the expulsion 
embraced the northern half of ITova Scotia, extend- 
ing from the southern point northeast to and around 
the Basin of Minas, the southern shores of 'New 
Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. The Acadia 
of " Evangeline " is found at Grand-Pre, on the basin 
of Minas. 

The name " Acadia " is not of French origin, as 
many have supposed, but is a " word-ending " of the 
Micmac Indian language, and means " the place of," 
" region," " field," etc., as Shuben-acadie, Sun-acadie, 
and a number of others still in use in l^ova Scotia. 



Their Deportation and Wande7'ings. 19 

It is found as a suffix to geographical names of Indian 
origin in this peninsula, while its cognate, in the Mali- 
cite Indian language of New Brunswick, is 
" quoddj," as Passama-quoddy, Noodi-quoddy, etc. 
The constant use of words with this ending by the 
Indians doubtless led to the adoption of the word by 
the first settlers for their new country. Minas, as 
it is now called, owes its name to the mines of copper 
which were discovered on the basin or bay of that 
name. " Les Mines " the French called the bay and 
surrounding country. 

Minas may be understood to include all the land 
bordering on the basin of Minas, but more particu- 
larly on the south and west, including the rivers 
Gaspereau, Cornwallis, Canard, Habitant and 
Pereau. This will embrace the present towns and 
villages of Avonport, Hortonville, Grand-Pre, Gas- 
pereau, Wolfville, Port Williams, ISTew Minas, Kent- 
ville, Starr's Point, Canard, Cornwallis and Pereau. 
Piziquid, now Windsor, was also included in Minas, 
and for the purposes of the sketch, is still a part of 
Minas. These places are often referred to by their 
distinctive names, and again under the general term 
" Minas.'' 

Acadia was settled by families, rather than by 
adventurers, explorers and traders, as was the case 
with the settlements of the St. Lawrence and lower 
Mississippi. If, therefore, we were to judge this peo- 
ple by their brethren in !N'ew Orleans, or even by 
those of Canada proper, we would do them injustice. 



20 Historical 8hetch of the Acadians. 

i 

Let us consider, briefly, the first attempts at set- 
tlement in Acadia, at Port Koyal, as early as 1604, 
and on tlie St. John's River, I^Tew Brunswick, about 
the same time; Champlain's explorations of the St. 
Lawrence and the Great Lakes, and the lake which 
bears his name ; the French settlement at the South ; 
the English colonists of New England and Virginia; 
the relation of the mother countries; the period of 
l^eutrality; and the final expulsion of the Acadians 
from E'ova Scotia in the autumn of 1755. 




o 



CHAPTER II. 

SETTLEMENTS PORT EOYAL QUEBEC. 

1604—1610. 

It was not until 1605 that the French succeeded in 
planting a permanent colony in 'New France. The 
first attempt was made at Port Eoyal (Annapolis) 
by a Huguenot nobleman — De Monts. He was given, 
by Henry IV, the right to plant a colony in New 
France, the grant including the territory as far south 
as the forty-sixth parallel of latitude. De Monts was 
made Lieutenant-General, with vice-regal powers 
over IN'ova Scotia, and given a monopoly of the fur 
trade. 

Accompanied by Samuel Champlain and others, he 
sailed from Havre, in March, 1604. He touched at 
Havre, near Cape Sable, and later entered the bay 
of Fundy and discovered the beautiful sheltered har- 
bor of Annapolis basin, but did not stop to fully 
explore its surroundings. He sailed to the mouth of 
the St. John. River, and thence to the St. Croix, 
where he spent the first winter. 

In the fall of 1605 he removed his little band to 
Port Royal (Annapolis), where the first real efforts 
to plant a colony were made. Champlain began at 
once to explore the coast as far south as Cape Cod, 
and made careful surveys and maps of the country. 
As early as 1603 Champlain, with Pontgrave, had 



22 Historical Shetch of the Acadians. 

entered the mouth of the St. Lawrence and ascended 
as far as Tadousac, near the point where the Sague- 
nay Eiver enters the St. Lawrence. Here they 
landed, but soon after proceeded up the river in a 
boat as far as the rapids of St. Lewis, above the place 
where Montreal now stands. They were greatly 
pleased with the country, and its prospects for trade 
and settlement. 

Champlain returned to France in the fall, and in 
the following spring came over again with De Monts. 
He again returned to France in 1607. His explora- 
tions of the St. Lawrence had familiarized him with 
the country, and impressed him with the importance 
of establishing a trading post in that region. He sug- 
gested the matter to De Monts, who, in the following 
spring, upon his return, sent him and Pontgrave on 
an expedition for further exploration, and to establish 
the post. After again reaching Tadousac, they con- 
tinued up the river to a place called by the Indians 
" Quebec," or the " l^arrows." Here they concluded 
to form a settlement, and began at once the erection 
of houses, the planting of corn and grain, and the 
establishing and developing of the fur trade, so that, 
in a short time, the little colony assumed at least the 
air of prosperity if not the reality. 

Champlain made friends with the Algonquin and 
Huron Indians, who were at war with the neighbor- 
ing Iroquois. Ascending the Sorel River with his 
allies as far as the falls of Chambley, he sent his. 
boats back with the crew, and proceeded with his 



Their Deportation and Wanderings. 23 

Indians in canoes up the river to the beautiful lake 
which bears his name. Here, near the present site 
of Fort Ticonderoga, they met on the lake a force of 
Iroquois. Both parties landed and threw up a bar- 
ricade of trees and earthworks, and on the following 
day engaged in battle. The arquebuses or muskets 
of Champlain and his men were too much for the Iro- 
quois, and an easy victory was won by Champlain and 
his Indian allies. The war thus begun was destined 
to be a costly one to the French, for the Iroquois 
were ever afterward their bitter enemies, and con- 
tinued to harass them from time to time until Eng- 
lish supremacy was established. 

The early years of the colony were not very pros- 
perous. This was not due to any fault of Champlain, 
but rather to indifference and lack of appreciation of 
the extent and value of the new country on the part 
of the home government. Champlain continued his 
explorations; going from the upper waters of the 
Ottawa, he crossed by land to Lake Huron, and ex- 
plored its northern and eastern shores for some dis- 
tance. 

Much of the early history of this section centers 
around the life of Champlain, and for this reason we 
give considerable space to the part he played in the 
establishment of the colony at Quebec. He was brave 
and daring, more of the explorer than colonizer, yet 
having a keen eye for strategic positions and points of 
vantage for his people. He was less anxious to 



34 Historical Sketch of the Acadians. 

become governor of Canada than to continue his 
explorations and trading. 

In 1611 Champlain returned to France,* and in 
1620 was appointed Governor General of the Terri- 
tory. De Monts having lost standing at the Court of 
France, in consequence of the death of the King, in 
1610 De Soissons was appointed Lieutenant Gover- 
nor, and at this time brought over a number of Re col- 
let priests who began the conversion of the Indians. 



* While on this visit to his native land, Champlain married Helen 
BouUe, a Protestant, and brought her with him to his new home. 
After his death she became an Ursuline nun. 



CHAPTEK III. 

MISSIONARIES. 

The Recollet and Jesuit missionaries pressed on 
into the vast and unknown wilderness about Lakes 
Superior, Huron and Michigan, and in later years 
traversed the streams flowing into the Mississippi, 
and down that river to its mouth. They established 
missions, and labored zealously to convert the In- 
dians. They were the pioneers of Christian civiliza- 
tion in the far West. Side by side with, and often 
in advance of the fur trader and explorer, we find 
these zealous, self-sacrificing priests leading the way 
into the heart of the wilderness, enduring inconceiv- 
able hardships, but never despairing in the good work. 
They traversed the country from 'Noysl Scotia by way 
of the rivers and great lakes down through the val- 
leys of the Ohio and Mississippi, marking out and 
indicating to those who were to follow in less peaceful 
pursuits the points of importance on these rivers. 

The colony at Quebec entered upon a prosperous 
career, and the population was largely increased by 
immigration from France. Champlain was in charge 
of the fortifications when, in 1628, an English fleet, 
under the command of Captain Kirk, appeared before 
the city and demanded its surrender. This was 
refused, and the English commander, after commit- 
ting some depredations in the vicinity, sailed away, 



26 Historical Sketch of the Acadians. 

only to return a year later, when Champlain, on ac- 
count of lack of supplies, which had been intercepted 
on their way to Quebec, surrendered the fort. He 
was made prisoner and carried to England, and was 
not released until the treaty of St. Germains in 1632. 
The prosperity of the colony depended largely on a 
single industry, that of trading in peltries; and in 
pursuit of this calling the hunters and traders braved 
the dangers of lurking savages, shot the rapids in 
their bark canoes, ventured upon the broad bosom 
of the stormy lakes, and patiently endured suffering 
from the bitter cold of the Canadian winter. The 
farmer was handicapped by the shortness of the sum- 
mers and the severity of the winters, and by a sterile 
and unresponsive soil. 



CHAPTER IV. 

ACADIA PROPER. 

Acadia proper, so far as actual occupation and set- 
tlement were concerned, regardless of grants and 
claims, comprised the present peninsula of Nova 
Scotia — particularly the western part — and New 
Brunswick, including the eastern part of Maine. The 
little colony, numbering less than one hundred, 
passed the first winter after landing at the mouth of 
the St. Croix River. A winter of unusual severity, 
together with the lack of proper food, and hardships 
and sufferings untold, thinned their ranks to one-half 
by spring. The survivors cruised along the coast as 
far south as Cape Cod in search of a more suitable 
place to form a settlement, but finally returned, and 
entered the narrow opening, between high and per- 
pendicular rocks, forming the entrance to the An- 
napolis Basin, now known as " Digby Grut," sailed up 
the Basin to Port Royal, and made preparations to 
spend the second (1605) winter. 

De Monts, leaving Pontgrave in command, re- 
turned to France. C. C. Smith, in his " History of 
Acadia,'' says : " After a winter of great suffering, 
and weary with waiting for succor, Pontgrave deter- 
mined to set sail for France, leaving only two men 
to guard the buildings and other property. He had 
just sailed when Jean de Poutrincourt, the lieutenant 



28 Historical Shetch of the Acadians. 

of De Monts, arrived with the long-expected help. 
Measures were at once taken to recall Pontgrave, if 
he could be found on the coast, and these were for- 
tunately successful. He was discovered at Cape 
Sahle and at once returned, but soon after sailed for 
Trance.'' 

The following winter, according to the report of 
Champlain and Lescarbot, passed very pleasantly; 
but in the early summer orders to abandon the set- 
tlement were received from De Monts, whose 
monopoly of the fur trade with the Indians had been 
rescinded. Many of the settlers reluctantly left 
their homes, and while most of them reached St. Malo 
in the fall of 1607, a few joined the Micmac Indians. 
Thus perished the first French colony of Acadia. 

Three years later Poutrincourt brought over a 
number of families and founded a colony on the site 
of the abandoned settlement. The deserted houses 
were again occupied. Fires were lighted in the old- 
fashioned, rudelyrconstructed fireplaces, and the 
smoke again curled in fleecy clouds towards the 
heavens. The little place took on an air of activity, 
and a bright future seemed to be in store for the new 
enterprise. 

The colonists were, however, doomed to bitter dis- 
appointment. The English colonists of Virginia, 
hearing of the attempts of the French to settle in 
Acadia and the north, on territory which England 
claimed by right of the discovery of the Cabots in 
1497, but on which no attempt at settlement had as 



Their Deportation and Wanderings. 29 

yet been made, at once dispatched several vessels 
tinder Captain Argall to destroy the feeble settle- 
ments. This squadron appeared off Mt. Desert 
Island, where a little band of priests had established 
themselves for the conversion of the Indians. After 
completely destroying all the possessions of the mis- 
sionaries, and committing other outrages, Argall 
sailed across the Bay of Fundy to the Port Eoyal set- 
tlement, destroyed its buildings, killed the cattle, 
seized what plunder he wanted, and sailed away to 
Virginia, leaving the inhabitants to support them- 
selves as best they could. 

It does not appear that France ever protested 
against this outrage. As many of the earlier at- 
tempts at settlement were made by private indi- 
viduals at their own expense, the government paid 
little or no attention to them, and was apparently 
indifferent to their fate. 

A few of the colonists were taken to Virginia and 
sold into slavery. The colony w^as not abandoned; 
those who remained set about tilling the soil, and 
gathering about them the necessaries of life. The 
country around Annapolis, or Port Royal, as it then 
was called, began to be settled. It was a French set- 
tlement on territory claimed by the English, although 
no settlement was attempted by the latter until 1621, 
when Sir William Alexander, a Scotchman, obtained 
a grant from King James for the lordship and baron- 
etcy of the territory of ISTova Scotia and ISTew Bruns- 
wick. Under this grant he made several attempts to 



30 Historical Sketch of the Acadians. 

colonize tiie country,* but without success. Four 
years later lie attempted to infuse life into his scheme 
by parceling out the territory into baronetcies. This, 
too, failed, and the treaty of St. Germains, in 1632, 
gave to France all the territory occupied by the Eng^ 
lish in JSTova Scotio, or Acadia, and 'New Brunswick. 
In 1654, war having again been declared between 
England and Erance, Cromwell secretly ordered that 
the whole of Acadia be subjected by the English, and 
Captain Sedgwick and Captain John Leverett, of Bos- 
ton, made the conquest. Eor the third time the 
Acadians were driven from their homes, and for ten 
years England ruled the colony. 



*The small town of Granville, on the north side of the Annapolis 
river, opposite the present town of Annapolis, marks the site of the 
Scotch settlement of Sir William Alexander. 



CHAPTER V. 

GEANTS TO LA TOUK AND CHAENISAY. 

Charles de la Tour and D'Aulnay-Charnisay were 
given grants of certain portions of New Brunswick, 
by Louis XIII, through Chevalier Razilla, who was 
appointed Governor of the whole of Acadia. Razilla 
sent them out as his lieutenants, giving to La Tour 
the portion east of the St. Croix River, and to Char- 
nisay the portion west of the river. Both erected 
forts and began trading with the Indians. 

Heretofore the English had been the aggressors in 
the various wars which had extended from the old 
world to the new, and had attacked their French 
neighbors on the north, meeting with but feeble 
resistance. The French looked with a jealous eye on 
the encroachments of the English colonists upon the 
territory ceded to France in 1632, and in a spirit of 
revenge for the acts of Argall, as well as to maintain 
the French authority over the ceded territory, the 
fLrst blow was struck against the English Colonists by 
La Tour. 

Having established himself at the mouth of the St. 
John River, and later at Castine, on Penobscot Bay, 
he, shortly after his appointment by Governor 
Razilla, attacked and drove away a small party of 
Plymouth traders and fishermen, who had set up a 
trading station at Machias. Charnisay treated an- 



32 Historical Sketch of the Acadians. 

other party of Plymouth traders in the same way. In 
1633 he destroyed their fort at the mouth of the 
Penobscot River, but showed mercy to all the men 
in charge of the place, gave them their liberty, and 
told them to make known to their friends farther 
down the coast that it was his intention to disperse 
them the following year. 

In retaliation for these attacks the Plymouth Com- 
pany hired and dispatched a vessel, under Girling, 
and their own bark under the celebrated Miles Stand- 
ish, to dispossess the Prench. In the attacks of Char- 
nisay and La Tour it must be remembered that the 
people of Port Royal and Minas did not participate. 
Chamisay's fort was attacked by the English colon- 
ists; these were permitted to exhaust their ammuni- 
tion, and having failed to reduce the fort they sailed 
away, practically defeated. 

Razilla brought with him from France forty fami- 
lies and settled at La Havre, on the south coast of the 
Peninsula, near Cape Sable, and at the same point 
where Poutrincourt landed in 1607. He died in 
1636. His possessions passed to his brother, but 
Charnisay, being a relative, gained control. He 
afterwards joined this colony to that of Port Royal,, 
and moved his people to that point, rebuilt the fort^ 
and sent to Prance for twenty additional families. 

Port Royal now became the principal settlement 
and the capital of the province. Across the Bay of 
Pundy from Port Royal, at the mouth of the St. 
Croix, the St. John, and farther south, in the present 



Their Deportation and Wanderings. 33 

State of Maine, at the mouth of the Penobscot River, 
were French settlements. With these settlements 
the people of Acadia were in close touch. At the 
same time it is necessary to follow the growth and 
development of the Acadian proper, of Port Royal 
and the country extending northeast from that point 
to and including the Minas Basin region. 

Here grew into being a people practically owing 
allegiance to no government, although nominally 
under the Trench, for many years, and then passing 
back and forwards, from French to English, as the 
fortunes of war or the caprice of European statesmen 
decided. Cut off from the mainland by the Bay of 
Fundy, and extending their settlements to the east- 
ward, they gradually became isolated from the rest 
of the new world, and only came in contact with it 
as the marketing of their products rendered it neces- 
sary, or as the advent of a fishing or trading vessel 
put them in communication with the outer world. 
They became the farmers and herdsmen of the north- 
east, and supplied the garrisons and the fishing fleets 
of the banks of !N^ewfoundland with their butter and 
eggs, their fresh meats and vegetables. Across the 
Bay of Fundy their fellow countrymen were not 
faring so well. La Tour, who held precisely the same 
kind of commission as Charnisay, was in charge of 
the fort at St. John, where the present city of that 
name now stands. 

Charnisay established his fort at Castine, on the 
Penobscot Bay. The two men soon became jealous 



34 Historical Shetch of the Acadians. 

of each other, and a bitter quarrel ensued. The 
desire on the part of each to monopolize the fur trade 
with the Indians, and the fact that each thought that 
he should be governor of this part of the Province, 
led to open hostilities between the two leaders. 
Charnisay charged La Tour with being disloyal and a 
traitor to France. The charge is not borne out by 
the facts, yet the promptness with which La Tour 
afterwards solicited the aid of the colonists at Boston 
in his behalf against Charnisay was sufficient to jus- 
tify the statement at least. Claude La Tour, the 
father of Charles La Tour, sailed for France to obtain 
supplies for the fort. At the mouth of the St. Law- 
rence he was taken prisoner by the English under 
David Kirk and sent to England. He was treated 
with special favor by the English court and married 
an English lady. 

Through the influence of his English wife he 
agreed to make an attempt to have his son surrender 
the fort in his charge to the English. The son was, 
however, loyal to France, and stood out bravely 
against the attacks of his father. The elder La Tour 
was unable to make good his promise to the English, 
and as a consequence they had no further use for 
him. He had also forfeited the confidence and re- 
spect of his own nation by his acts. Three times he 
had assaulted the fort and each time unsuccessfully. 
The English doubted the good faith of the assaults. 

The old man was now reduced to poverty, but in 
his dire distress his English wife would not desert 



Their Deportation and ]Yanderings. 35 

him. They finally joined the English colonists who 
had settled at Granville, on the opposite side of the 
bay, near the present site of Annapolis. The few 
settlers who remained of the band led by Sir William 
Alexander were still A^ithin the shadow of the fort at 
Annapolis. After many hardships and sufferings the 
elder La Tour and his wife were given shelter by the 
son, who erected a small lodge for them outside the 
walls of his fort at St. John, and provided for their 
wants; but there was never much social intercourse 
between them. 

La Tour's fort was strongly built, and within the 
stockade were two stone houses, a magazine and sta- 
bles for cattle. Twenty cannon composed its heavy 
armament. Here in the wilds of America lived 
Charles La Tour in a style and luxury rivaling that 
of the knights and barons of the Middle Ages. The 
streams, the sea and the forests furnished the choicest 
meats and fish for his table, while to these were 
added the luxuries of France, brought over in vessels 
trading in furs, etc. 

La Tour and Charnisay each tried to enlist Massa- 
chusetts in his behalf, but to little purpose. Char- 
nisay visited France to complain against La Tour, and 
if possible to have him shorn of his authority in the 
Colony and sent to France for punishment. By rea- 
son of his superior influence at Court at this time he 
was successful in securing the order, and returned to 
put it into execution. His rival had, in the mean- 
time, visited Boston, and was hospitably received, but 



36 Historical SJcetch of the Acadians. 

was unable to secure any direct aid from the colony 
other than to be permitted to hire four vessels and a 
pinnace to aid him in his defence. 

The military forces of the rival Governors were 
about equal. Charnisay, with about ^ve hundred 
men in armed ships, attacked Fort La Tour, but was 
driven away. There was a lull in the proceedings, 
and during the interim La Tour went to Quebec to 
lay the matter before the Governor of that province, 
and to secure his friendly offices to effect a settlement 
of the difficulties. He left the fort during his ab- 
sence in charge of his wife. Madame La Tour was a 
Huguenot, endowed with courage, energy and the 
spirit of her ancestors. She was no more willing to 
surrender the fort than was her husband. In the 
absence of her husband Charnisay made a second 
attack on the fort. Madame La Tour took charge of 
the garrison, and from the bastions directed the can- 
nonade on the enemy's ships. Again Charnisay was 
compelled to withdraw. 

What valor had failed to accomplish treachery 
finally effected, and on his third attempt Charnisay, 
through the aid of a treacherous sentry, gained ad- 
mission to the fort. Seeing herself betrayed, the 
lady rose to the occasion, and, aided by the loyal men 
of the garrison, fought with the valor of a knight of 
old. '' Fight, men, for our honor and the fort ! " she 
cried. The fight was fierce; many were killed on 
both sides. Charnisay proposed that the garrison 
capitulate, promising life and liberty to all. The 



Their Deportation and Wanderings. 37 

terms were accepted by Madame La Tour, but Char- 
nisay aftenvards violated his promise, and Madame 
La Tour was compelled to witness, with a rope around 
her own neck, the execution of every member of the 
garrison, eighteen in all. She was told that she was 
to be the last to suffer. Her life was spared, but the 
atrocities she was compelled to witness, the loss of 
the fort, the absence of her husband, and the terri- 
ble strain she had been under for so long, broke her 
health, and she died a few days afterwards. Char- 
nisay secured booty to the value of ten thousand 
pounds. He had now the whole of Acadia to himself, 
and began to erect mills and build ships. For a short 
time the colony was prosperous. He received honors 
from France, and in 1647 was commissioned Gov- 
ernor, but his reign was of short duration. 

La Tour, upon his return from Quebec, was 
crushed and heartbroken over the death of his wife 
and the devastation wrought by his enemy. Two 
years later he sailed for France, and laid the facts of 
Charnisay's tyranny so effectively before the Court, 
that he not only secured a restoration of his title and 
privileges, but was made Charnisay's successor. 
After two years spent in France he returned as Gov- 
ernor and Lieutenant General of Acadia, determined 
to retrieve his fortunes and avenge the death of his 
wife. In the interim Chamisay was drowned, and 
upon the arrival of La Tour the widow of Chamisay 
prepared to defend the rights of herself and her chil- 
dren against the enemy of her husband. The matters 



38 Historical Slcetch of the Acadians. 

in dispute were amicably arranged by the marriage of 
La Tonr to the widow of Charnisay. The honeymoon 
was interrupted by a detachment of English soldiers, 
under the command of Captain Robert Sedgwick, 
who forced the fort to surrender, largely on account 
of the lack of provisions. La Tour obtained from 
Cromwell a large grant^ of land for himself and tAvo 
Englishmen, but becoming pecuniarily embarrassed 
he sold his interests to his partners. Thus ended the 
struggles between Charnisay and La Tour, one of the 
romances of the early days of Acadia. 

Erom 1656 until 1668 Acadia was under the con- 
trol of the English, when it was ceded to Erance with 
" undefined limits," a phrase fruitful of much trou- 
ble. Erom 1668 until 1713, when Acadia passed 
finally into the possession of the English, it changed 
no less than ten times from one power to the other. 
By the treaty of Utrecht it was finally relinquished 
to the English. 

In 1690, hostilities being again renewed between 
the mother countries, an expedition was fitted out at 
Boston under the supervision of Sir William Phipps, 
and sent to destroy the settlements at Port Royal and 
St. John. With a frigate of forty guns, two sloops 
with twenty-four guns, five smaller vessels, and trans- 
ports for seven hundred men, he reduced St. John 
and Port Royal, and secured booty enough to pay the 
entire expense of the expedition. Phipps was ap- 
pointed Governor of Massachusetts, which nominally 
included Acadia. 



Their Deportation and ]yanderi7igs. 39 

The treaty of Kyswick seven years later gave the 
country back to France. With each transfer of the 
Acadians they were plundered by their English 
neighbors; they were so much easier to reach than the 
French Canadian. 

France, after the treaty of Eyswick, sent Villebon 
in the ship Union with supplies and recruits for the 
garrison, and presents for the Indians. On his 
arrival at Port Royal he Avas told of the hardships 
the people had recently suffered, and that the Eng- 
lish were probably yet in the waters of the Bay of 
Fundy. After consultation Villebon decided to 
leave the Union at Port Royal, cross the bay and 
occupy Fort Jemseg on the St. John River. 

Scarcely had he reached St. John before there 
arrived in the harbor of Port Royal two ships manned 
by English and colonial pirates. They landed and 
pillaged the remains of the place, burned twelve 
houses, crossed the Annapolis River to Granville, 
burned sixteen houses, killed the cattle, hanged some 
of the inhabitants, burned others, seized all the plun- 
der, including the entire cargo of the Union, and 
sailed away. 

Between 1604, the date of De Monts' arrival in 
Acadia, and 1667, when the treaty of Breda, by 
which England surrendered Acadia to France, was 
signed, a period of nearly three-quarters of a century, 
the population had grown but slowly. This was 
mainly owing to the almost constant war between the 
two nations, and to the jealousies and the occasional 



40 Historical Shetch of the Acadians. 

warfare between the rival claimants to various sec- 
tions of the country. At the latter date probably 
less than ^yq hundred whites of both nations lived 
in Acadia. While the settlers at Port Koyal were 
gradually pushing up the river, it was not until 1671 
that a settlement was affected at Minas, although the 
region had been known for many years. About this 
time Pierre Theriot, Antoine Landry, Claud Landry 
and Eene La Blanc began a settlement at Minas. 
From this time on the northeastern section of the 
peninsula began to develop. ]!^ew settlers came each 
year, and, being isolated from the rest of the world, 
they were permitted to grow and flourish (with occa- 
sional interruptions and exactions on the part of both 
England and France) for nearly a hundred years. 



CHAPTEK VI. 

THE FRENCH AT THE SOUTH. ^ 

As early as 1673, Marquette, a Jesuit missionary, 
and Joliet, a fur trader, floated down the Wisconsin 
into the Mississippi River, and down that stream as 
far as the mouth of the Arkansas. Here they stopped 
with some friendly Indians, who warned them against 
the hostile tribes farther down the river. 

They returned to the north again, satisfied that 
they had reached a point not far from the mouth of 
the great river. It remained for La Salle, who had 
established a trading post on Lake Ontario, and who 
had previously discovered the Ohio and other rivers 
flowing into the Mississippi, to successfully explore 
it to its mouth, as well as northward to the falls of 
St. Anthony. In 1682 he floated down the stream 
to the GuK. He saw and appreciated the great 
advantage of establishing a colony near its mouth, in 
order to control the two great water routes to the 
interior, the St. Lawrence being already in the pos- 
session of the French. He returned to France and 
placed the matter before the King, with all the fervor 
and zeal of his nature. His Majesty listened to the 
glowing description, but not appreciating the import- 
ance of so rich a discovery, did not become enthusi- 
astic over the project. It was only through the com- 
bined efforts of La Salle, Eemonville, D'Iberville, 



42 Historical Sketch of the Acadians. 

and his brother Bienville, that the King finally be- 
came convinced of the importance of undertaking the 
enterprise. 

Several expeditions were soon thereafter fitted out, 
one under the direction of La Salle, and one under 
D'Iberville and his brother, Bienville. The captain 
of La Salle's expedition, failing to find the mouth of 
the river, sailed farther south, and landed in Texas. 
Here the colony was left, while La Salle started on 
foot for Canada to seek aid for the suffering settlers. 
Some of his party mutinied, and after a few days' 
journey. La Salle was secretly murdered. The Span- 
iards, upon whose territory the expedition had 
landed, shortly afterward destroyed the colonists, or 
carried into slavery those they did not put to death. 

D'Iberville and his brother formed a settlement at 
Biloxi, at the head of Biloxi Bay, east of the Mis- 
sissippi River. D'Iberville was governor of the 
colony at first, but in 1704 Bienville succeeded to the 
direction of affairs. A settlement was formed at 
Mobile, and one on the lower Mississippi, about fifty 
miles from its mouth. In 1710 the colony was re- 
duced to famine. Bienville was accused of misman- 
agement. A new Governor was appointed, who 
brought with him a commission for Bienville as Lieu- 
tenant Governor. The latter, having shortly after- 
ward quarreled with his superior, was sent by the 
Governor on an expedition up the river, in the hope 
that the Indians would kill him. He ascended to 
Natchez, where he made friends with the Indians and 



Their Deportation and Wanderings. 43 

established a small trading station. In 1Y18 lie 
founded New Orleans, and was made Governor of the 
Province. The seat of government was transferred 
from Mobile to IsTew Orleans. 

France saw the rapid encroachment of the English 
and Spanish, realized the necessity of holding the ad- 
vantage she had gained in this territory, and at once 
began to rush in new immigrants without regard to 
their character. All grades of French life, from the 
highest to the lowest, were dmiiped promiscuously 
into the settlement. 

The weakness of the French colonies was due in 
part to the lack of support by the home government, 
and to the smallness of their numbers, but chiefly to 
the fact that their settlements were mostly trading 
devices. Their neighbors, the English, and even the 
Spaniards, sought to establish homes for themselves. 

We now find the French with the above-mentioned 
settlements at the south, one of considerable strength 
at Quebec, one at Port Koyal and one at Louisbourg 
on Cape Breton Island. Already they had begun to 
establish a chain of forts extending from the St. Law- 
rence by way of the great lakes, the Alleghenies, the 
Ohio and the Mississippi Eivers to 'New Orleans. 
Many of these forts figured prominently in the wars 
which followed in the next fifty years. 



CHAPTER VII. 

HOME LIFE OF THE ACADIAN. 

In September, 1710, when the harvests were gath- 
ered, the fall crops planted, and preparations being 
made for the coming winter, the inhabitants of Port 
Eoyal were greatly surprised to see a most formi- 
dable fleet coming up the basin to altack Port Royal. 
The fort commands a view of the inland bay for a 
long distance. Pour regiments of I^ew England 
troops landed without resistance. On the first of 
October three batteries were opened within two hun- 
dred yards of the fort, and after a bombardment of 
twenty-four hours it capitulated. By the terms of 
surrender the soldiers were to be transported to 
Prance, and the Prench inhabitants living within 
cannon-shot of Port Royal were to be protected in 
person and property for two years, on taking the oath 
of allegiance to the Queen of England; or they were 
to be allowed to move to Canada or Newfoundland. 
Port Royal became Annapolis, and Acadia forever 
ceased to be a Province of Prance. By the treaty of 
Utrecht (1713) Acadia passed to Great Britain, but 
Prance was left in undisputed possession of Cape 
Breton Island. 

The Prench Government, in order to check the 
English in Nova Scotia, began the fortification of 
Louisbourg, and invited the Acadians to its protec- 
tion. The English, fearing this concentration of 



Historical Sketch of the Acaclians, 45 

strength at Louisboiirg, forbade the movement, and 
tacitly allowed them to stay in their accustomed 
places, from time to time demanding of them that 
they take the oath of allegiance. This the Acadians 
were willing to do if they might be exempted from 
bearing arms against their brothers in Canada, Cape 
Breton and the mother country. In other words, as 
to England's ancient enemy they wished to remain 
neutral. 

Kow begins their distinct existence under English 
rule as " neutrals.'' For almost thirty years they 
enjoyed comparative peace. They tilled their land, 
planted fruit trees and raised stock. The meadow 
lands were reclaimed from the sea by the erection 
of dykes, and thus afforded most excellent pasturage 
for their cattle. The mechanic and artisan, the black- 
smith, the carpenter, the wagonmaker and the cob- 
bler each found a demand for his services. Eishing 
formed a very important industry, and many were 
engaged in this occupation, while not a few continued 
to deal in peltries with the neighboring tribes of 
Indians, particularly the Micmacs. A few colonists 
from Massachusetts settled among them, which was 
a little leaven inspiring them to put forth every 
effort to improve their condition. 

The English soldiery were haughty and discour- 
teous, and heaped much abuse and many indignities 
upon the neutrals. These, however, peaceably en- 
dured, still cherishing the hope that they might again 
become the subjects of France. They were a highly 



46 Historical Sketch of the Acadians. 

moral, religious and kind-hearted people. The Aca- 
dian was not inclined to leave his native village, or to 
break away from the traditions of his ancestors. 
Cheerful in spirit, easily satisfied as to his necessities, 
content with little, he naturally was not disposed to 
contend for his rights. Palfrey says : "There appears 
to be no doubt that they were a virtuous, simple- 
minded, industrious, unambitious, religious people." 
English and American writers have shown that they 
were not the dangerous and warlike people they have 
sometimes been painted by the prejudiced writers of 
colonial days. ^ 

We may naturally infer that they were neither 
saints nor demons, but a fair sample of the French 
peasant born on American soil and endeavoring to 
improve his condition in life under very trying cir- 
cumstances. 

" Thus, at peace with God and the world, the farmer of Grand- 
Pr6 

Lived on his sunny farm, and Evangeline governed his house- 
hold. 

Many a youth, as he knelt in the church and opened his 
missal, 

Fixed his eyes upon her as the saint of his deepest devotion; 

Happy was he who might touch her hand or the hem of her 
garment ! 

Many a suitor came to her door, by the darkness befriended, 

And, as he knocked and waited to hear the sound of her foot- 
steps. 

Knew not which beat the louder, his heart or the knocker of 
iron; 

Or at the joyous feast of the Patron Saint of the village, 

Bolder grew, and pressed her hand in the dance as he whis- 
pered 



Their Dejyortation and Wanderings. 47 

Hurried words of love, that seemed a part of the music. 
But, among all who came, young Gabriel only was welcome; 
Gabriel Lajeunesse, the son of Basil the blacksmith." 

C. C. Smith says that our poet Longfellow, in 
" Evangeline/' " throws a somewhat false and dis- 
torted light over the character of the Acadians." 
" They were not the peaceable and happy people they 
are commonly supposed to have been; and their 
houses were by no means the vine-clad, picturesque 
and strongly-built houses or cottages described by 
the poet. The people were notably quarrelsome 
among themselves, and to the last degree supersti- 
tious." This statement is not borne out by the facts. 
It may be true, and was no doubt the case at certain 
periods of their existence, that their houses were not 
strongly built, or vine-clad, for when we recall the 
fact that their dwellings were destroyed no less than 
ten or twelve times, it is not at all likely that strongly- 
built houses should each time take the place of those 
destroyed. 

We have it on good authority, however, that many 
substantial houses were erected, among them stone 
buildings of one and two stories, and not a few quite 
pretentious structures were reared by the wealthier 
class, both at Minas and Port Royal. Longfellow's 
inquiry, " Where is the thatched-roofed village, the 
home of the Acadian farmer ? " does not throw a dis- 
torted light on the home of the Acadian farmer. The 
sesthetic tastes of their French ancestors were not 
wanting in these descendants born in the new world. 



48 Historical Shetch of the Acadians. 

and flowers adorned their yards and humble homes 
in great profusion, while the tall and graceful Nor- 
mandy poplar and willow to-day mark the site of 
many a ruined Acadian home. It is altogether likely 
that the home of the Acadian would compare favor- 
ably at all times with that of his 'New England neigh- 
bor under like conditions. 

Their home life was similar to that of the peasants 
from whom they were descended, with greater free- 
dom of action, when not harassed by a brutal soldiery 
or by the pirates who infested the coast. The men 
and boys built dykes to " shut out the turbulent 
tides," and reclaimed vast stretches of rich meadow 
land; they tilled the soil and gathered the harvests; 
wood was cut for the winter, and logs for the old- 
fashioned " up-and-down saw of a single stroke.'^ 
The carpenter and blacksmith, the mason, the cob-^ 
bier and the miller each in his way contributed to the 
wealth of the colony. The maiden, gowned in her 
modest home-spun garments, assisted her mother in 
the household duties, sewing, knitting, baking, scrub- 
bing, spinning, weaving, and performing a hundred 
other tasks that fall to the lot of women. In turn 
she was shepherdess and milk-maid, and in summer 
she " raked the meadows sweet with hay," but no 
proud judge ever rode by to disturb the maiden's 
serenity. In the " hay-making " she was assisted by 
the strong-limbed and light-hearted lads of her vil- 
lage, and many a friendly contest was entered into 
by the young men in pitching hay, that the victor 



Their Deportation and Wanderings. 49 

might win the approving smile or nod of the queen 
of the hay field. The old dinner bell that hung in 
the forks of the tree, or swung between two upright 
posts, pealed forth its welcome notes, calling the 
toiler from hay-field or from harvest-field to a boun- 
tiful repast of fish, game and wild fruits. 

There was another bell, with a silvery tone, which 
swung high in the tower of the church, that morning, 
noon and night called the faithful to prayer, as does 
the muezzin the Moslem. Down on his knees went 
the simple son of Acadia, and thus kneeling he 
offered up a fervent prayer to the Master or an Ave 
Maria to the Virgin. On Sunday the villagers and 
the country people were early astir, and old and 
young alike attended church, lingering after the ser- 
vices to discuss crops and local affairs, or to inquire 
after the health of the absent ones. 

The Acadian has been charged with being super- 
stitious and ignorant. Doubtless he was both, — ^it 
was a superstitious age; and while his E'ew England 
neighbor, provided with schools, churches and an 
educated ministry, was busy burning witches and 
cropping the ears of Quakers, it is not to be expected 
that the Acadian would be entirely devoid of some 
of the weaknesses which marred the character of the 
early Puritans of N'ew England. With all his virtues 
— and they were many — ^the Puritan had no equal 
for superstition, bigotry and cruelty among the col- 
onists of North America. In all Acadian history we 
can find no parallel for Salem and its witch-burning. 



CHAPTEK YIII. 

FATHER EASLE. 

Sebastian Easle, often improperly spelled Raale, 
or Eale, was born at Dole, France, of distinguisbed 
family. He was bigbly educated, and at one time 
tangbt Greek in tbe Jesuit college of Mmes. At bis 
own request be was appointed to tbe missions in 
Canada, and for a wbile was stationed at Quebec. In 
1695 be was placed in cbarge of tbe station at ]^or- 
ridgewock, on tbe Kennebec E-iver. Here be began 
bis w^ork among tbe Indians, and made a very tbor- 
ougb study of tbe Abenaki language. By sbaring 
tbe dangers and bardsbips of tbe tribe be soon 
became a power among tbem. Tbe Frencb autbori- 
ties at Quebec attempted to use tbis influence against 
tbe Englisb, and entered into correspondence witb 
Easle. It bas been stated tbat Easle instigated tbe 
attacks of tbe Indians on tbe Englisb settlements 
along tbe coast. He really, bowever, only tried to 
prevent tbe Abenaki from baving any dealings witb 
tbe Englisb, or becoming imbued witb tbe Protestant 
faitb. 

Public opinion in Boston and E'ew England became 
aroused against tbe priest, and as early as 1Y05 tbe 
Council of Boston put a price on bis bead. Captain 
Hilton, at tbe bead of two hundred and seventy men, 
including forty-five 'New Englanders, attempted bis 



Historical Sketch of the Acadians. 51 

capture. Xorridgewock was surprised and its 
church burned, but Father Rasle escaped to the 
woods with his papers. When peace was declared in 
1715, he, with the aid of the French Governor, began 
the erection of a new church at the same place, which 
Avhen completed ^' would excite admiration in 
Europe.'' It was supplied with all the beautiful and 
costly vestments and symbols of Roman Catholic 
worship, and services were conducted with great dig- 
nity and pomp — ^forty Indian boys acting as 
acolytes. The Massachusetts authorities engaged in 
a correspondence with Father Rasle, with a view of 
decoying him to Boston; failing in this, they sent 
parties to seize him. 

In January, 1725, Colonel Westbrook, with three 
hundred men, reached the mission, burned the mag- 
nificent church, and pillaged Father Rasle's home, 
but failed to capture him. They found an iron box, 
which contained, besides his papers and his cor- 
respondence with the authorities at Quebec, a dic- 
tionary of the Abenaki language, the work of the 
priest, and which is to-day preserved in the library 
of Harvard College. A year later another body of 
one hundred and eight men from Fort Richmond, at 
dead of night, when all the inmates were peaceably 
sleeping, stole in upon the little station of Il^orridge- 
wock, seized Father Rasle and put him to death, it is 
said at the foot of the mission cross. Many Indians 
were killed in this night attack, among whom were 
seven chiefs who attempted to save the life of their 



52 Historical Sketch of the Acadians. 

beloved priest. The priest's body was mutilated and 
left without burial. A few days later the Indians 
returned and buried the remains. 

The French authorities vainly demanded repara- 
tion for this outrage. One hundred and nine years 
after the murder of Father Easle a monument was 
erected and dedicated to his memory, Bishop Fen- 
wick, of Boston, — (that city which sought so long to, 
and eventually did, accomplish the missionary's 
death), — officiating at the dedication. 

The estimates of the character of Father Rasle are 
as various as the Roman Catholic and Protestant 
writers could make them, one calling him " an in- 
famous villain,'' the other " a saint and hero." He 
died in the performance of his duties, and the Catho- 
lic estimate of his character is doubtless the nearer 
correct. 



CHAPTER IX. 

PEEPAEATIOXS FOR THE FIIs'AL STRUGGLE. 

During the thirty years of peace the only events 
of any consequence which occurred to disturb the 
general tranquillity were the attack on the English 
by the Abenaki Indians, and the murder of Eather 
Rasle. Erom this time until the breaking out of hos- 
tilities between Erance and England, in 1745, the 
Erench dream of a great Empire west of the moun- 
tains and along the interior water-routes, with the 
control of the two great natural outlets, the St. Law- 
rence and Mississippi Rivers, had not been despaired 
of. Active preparations were being made to 
strengthen their position from one river to the other, 
by way of the great lakes; and to this end more than 
sixty forts were erected. The first and strongest of 
these was the series of fortifications at Louisbourg, 
on Cape Breton Island, which was called the Gibral- 
tar of America. The Erench spent over five million 
pounds on these works, and believed them to be im- 
pregnable. Louisbourg commanded the entrance to 
the St. Lawrence through its deepest channel. 

Eor a quarter of a century Erance had devoted her 
energies to the completion of this stronghold, and 
now its somber walls and towers stood like frowning 
giants above the northern seas as a menace to their 
ancient enemy. The town was nearly three miles in 



54 Historical Shetch of the Acadians. 

circumference, and was surrounded bj a rampart of 
stone from thirty to thirty-six feet high, and a ditch 
or moat in front eighty feet wide. There were six 
bastions and eight batteries, containing embrasures 
for one hundred cannon and eight mortars. In addi- 
tion there were at the entrance to the harbor two 
batteries, one of which was on a high hill overlooking 
the entrance and in a very commanding position. 
The Citadel was in the gorge of the King's bastion. 
The stately stone Church, l^unnery and Hospital 
were in the center of the town. All the streets 
crossed at right angles, and communication was had 
with the harbor by means of ^ve gates in the wall on 
that side of the town. The houses were constructed 
for the most part of stone, and the town had the ap- 
pearance of being unusually ancient and substantial 
for so new a country. 

The fort at Crown Point, on Lake Champlain, 
guarded the entrance into Canada from the Hudson 
Valley. Quebec was strengthened. Other fortifica- 
tions of considerable strength and importance were 
Niagara, Detroit, Toledo, Fort LeBoeuf (Waterford, 
Erie County, Pa.), Presque Isle (Erie, Pa.), Fort 
Venango (Franklin, Pa.), Fort Duquesne (Pitts- 
burg, Pa.), and a number of others between Du- 
quesne and 'New Orleans. The skill and foresight 
with which these points were selected is shown by 
the fact that many of them are now marked by large 
and flourishing cities. 

During this period the French population had not 



Their Deportation and Wanderings. 55 

increased with anything like the rapidity of the Eng- 
lish. While they had military posts in abundance, 
they had few actual settlements, and fewer tillers of 
the soil. On the other hand, the English were mak- 
ing great progress, and increasing rapidly in popula- 
tion. After one hundred and fifty years of occupa- 
tion the French numbered 125,000, while the Eng- 
lish numbered 1,250,000. The third inter-colonial 
war, known as King George's War, was devoid of any 
incident of importance except the capture of Louis- 
bourg. This strongly-fortified place yielded after a 
siege of six weeks by four thousand ]^ew England 
troops and four English war vessels, June 17th, 1745. 
There was nothing very brilliant or scientific about 
the siege, but by its successful issue the colonial 
troops were given confidence in their own ability, 
bravery and skill as soldiers, which thirty years later 
ranked them among the best fighting material of the 
world. 

The capture of this stronghold by the colonial 
forces astonished all Europe, and Mr. Pepperell, the 
merchant who led the expedition, was made a baronet 
by the King. The next year France sent a fleet to 
recapture Louisbourg, but storms and disease caused 
them to abandon the attempt. Upon peace being 
again restored between France and England, the 
Americans were chagrined and bitterly disappointed 
to find that Louisbourg had been restored to France, 
and they had been deprived of the fruits of their vic- 
tory. It is said that the drums which beat the Ameri- 



o6 Historical Sketch of the Acadians. 

can triumphal march into the city of Lonisbourg, 
June 17th, 1745, thirty years after at Bunker Hill, 
June 17th, 1775, animated the patriots in the first 
fight in which the American militia ever measured 
swords with English veterans. This war taught the 
colonists that they must be prepared to defend their 
own interests, since England was evidently liable at 
any time to sacrifice colonial to her own domestic 
interests. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE LAXD OF EVAISTxELIXE GRAND-PRE MIK"AS. 

In the Acadian land, on the shores of the Basin of Minus, 
Distant, secluded, still, the little village of Grand-Pre 
Lay in the fruitful valley. Vast meadows stretched to the eastward, 
Giving the village its name, and pasture toflocT^s icithout number. 
Bikes, that the hands of the farmers had raised with labor incessant, 
Shut out the turbulent tides; but at stated seasons the flood-gates 
Opened, and welcomed the sea to wander at will o'er the meadows. 
West and south there were fields of flax, and orchards and corn-fields 
Spreading afar and unfenced o'er the plain; and away to the northward 
Blomidon rose, and the forests old, and aloft on the mountains 
Sea-fogs pitched their tents, and mists from the mighty Atlantic 
LooTced on the happy valley, but ne'er from their station descended. 
There, in the midst of its farms, reposed the Acadian village. 

The reader naturally reverts to Port Eoyal and 
the events transpiring there. The treaty of Utrecht, 
which gave Louisbourg to the French, reserved all 
of Acadia, with that exception, to England, and gave 
to the Acadians one year in which to remove them- 
selves and their movable property wherever they 
might desire. Those who remained conld do so as 
subjects of Great Britain, and should enjoy the free 
exercise of their religion as far as the laws of the 
country allowed. They had also the privilege of sell- 
ing their land if they desired to remove from the 
country. Treaties between nations at war with each 
other, when made with reference to the disposal of 
territory, are formulated without consulting the 
inhabitants of the country disposed of; it was so in 
the case of the Acadians. By reference to the out- 
line map the reader will notice the location of Louis- 
bourg, Port Beausejour, Fort Edward, Halifax and 



58 Historical Sketch of the Acadians. 

Port Eoyal. These were tlie fortified places in ^ova 
Scotia and Cape Breton Island. Louisbourg and 
Fort Beausejour were occupied by the French, while 
over Port Royal (Annapolis) and Halifax floated the 
flag of England. 

The land of Acadia, as known in song and story, 
extended from Annapolis northeast to and around 
Minas Basin, embracing the present counties of 
Annapolis and Kings, with settlements along the 
Canard, Piziquid, Avon and Gaspereau Rivers. 
This is the " Land of Evangeline.'' Here the simple 
Acadian peasant tried to live the life of a neutral be- 
tween two nations contending for a continent, from 
one of which he was descended, whose mother tongue 
was his, and whose religion and traditions were in 
constant and irreconcilable conflict with the other. 
Yet the Acadian, such was his Quaker-like disposi- 
tion, would have avoided, for himself and his chil- 
dren, all connection with the warring nations. 

Here, too, occurred the last sad scene in the drama 
of Acadian life, — their expulsion, and the destruc- 
tion of their homes. The " ITeutrals," as the colon- 
ists called them, were between the upper and the 
nether mill-stone. On the one hand the French, at 
Beausejour and Louisbourg, were urging them to join 
their fellow countrymen against the English, and 
demanding of them cattle and other necessaries of 
life for the garrisons, threatening vengeance and the 
excommunication of the Church if these were re- 
fused. On the other hand, the English, whose sub- 



Their Deportation and Wanderings. 59 

jects they were, forbade their trading with the 
French, or shipping any cattle or produce out of the 
country, and demanded of them all necessary supplies 
for the garrisons at Halifax, Annapolis and Fort 
Edward. Halifax was in 1749 made the seat of gov- 
ernment. 

There has been so much controversy as to the 
neutrality, not to say loyalty, of the Acadian, that we 
deem it wise at this time to investigate the matter in 
the light thrown about it by ancient documents and 
records on both sides of the controversy. He was as 
loyal to his English king as a man who takes an oath 
to support and defend his Majesty's government 
against all his enemies, except his greatest, can be. 
He took this modified oath, hoping that he might 
never be called upon to fight against his own people, 
and indeed hoping that he might not be called upon 
to fight at all. He was loyal, in that, with a few 
exceptions, he never gave aid or comfort to his 
Majesty's enemies. In fact, he wished to be left 
alone. War might be waged all around him, and he 
was indifferent if he were not forced to engage in it, 
or if he were not molested by the active participants 
in the struggle. He could see no reason for war, 
much less that he should take part in it. 

It is true that he hoped that he might again, be a 
subject of France; not that his people had ever been 
benefited by the acts of the French government, or 
its officers and agents, but because of a common 
religion, language and tradition. 



60 Historical SJcetch of the Acadians. 

The Acadians, from the treaty of Ryswick until 
the time of their dispersion, were looked upon with 
suspicion both by the colonists of ISTew England and 
their fellow countrymen of Canada, and by the 
French soldiery at Louisbourg and Beausejour. If 
France won in the struggle for supremacy on the 
American continent, she would have to win without 
the aid of the Acadians, whom she considered her 
subjects, and whose aid she was constantly seeking, 
only to be persistently refused. What would have 
been their position had they aided their countrymen 
after having taken the oath of allegiance to England ? 
That question has been answered by their fate, for 
whether they had violated their oaths or not the 
result would evidently have been the same. Both 
governments were exacting of them the things which 
put them in a doubtful light. 

Captain Du Vivier, under orders from the French 
Commandant at Louisbourg, directs that '^ the inhabi- 
tants of Minas are ordered to acknowledge the obedi- 
ence they owe to the King of France, and in conse- 
quence are called upon for the following supplies: 
the parish of Grand-Pre, eight horses and two men 
to drive them; that of the Eiver Canard, eight horses 
and two men to drive them; that of Piziquid, twelve 
horses and three men to drive them; as also the pow- 
der horns possessed by the said inhabitants, one only 
being reserved for each house. The whole of the 
above must be brought to me on Saturday morning 
at 10 o'clock, at the flag which I have hoisted, and 



Their Deportation and Wanderings. 61 

under which the deputies from the said parishes shall 
be assembled to pledge fidelity for themselves and 
for all the inhabitants of the neighborhood who shall 
not be called away from the labors of the harvest. 
All those for whom the pledge of fidelity shall be 
given will be held fully responsible for said pledge, 
and those who contravene the present order, shall be 
punished as rebellious subjects, and delivered into 
the hands of savages as enemies of the State, as we 
cannot refuse the demands which the savages make 
for all those who will not submit themselves. We 
enjoin upon the inhabitants who have acknowledged 
their submission to the King of France to acquaint us 
promptly with the names of all those who wish to 
screen themselves from the said obedience, in order 
that faithful subjects shall not suffer from any incur- 
sions which the savages may make." 

This threat of the French Commandant to turn 
loose the Indians was one of the reasons urged by the 
Acadians for not taking the oath of allegiance to the 
English King. This note also contained a demand 
for large quantities of meat and grain. The Acadians 
replied as follows : 

" To M. De Ganne : 

" We, the undersigned, humbly representing the inhabitants of 
Minas, Eiver Canard, Piziquid, and the surrounding rivers, beg 
that you will be pleased to consider, that while there would be 
no difficulty, by virtue of the strong force which you command, 
in supplying yourself with the quantity of grain and meat you 
and Du Vivier have ordered, it would be quite impossible for us 
to furnish the quantity you demand, or even a smaller (since 



62 Historical Sketch of the Acadians. 

the harvest has not been so good as we hoped it would be), 
without placing ourselves in great peril. We hope, gentlemen, 
that you will not plunge us and our families into a state of 
total loss; and that this consideration will cause you to with- 
draw your savages and troops from our districts. We live 
under a mild and tranquil government, and we have all good 
reason to be faithful to it. 

" Your very obedient servants, 

Jacques Le Blanc and others. 
"Minas, Octobre 13, 1744." 

Under the same date the English Governor, Mas- 
carene, writes to the deputies a very highly com- 
mendatory note, in which he says of the people of 
Minas and vicinity, " They are to be commended for 
remaining true to the allegiange which they owe to 
the King of Great Britain, their legitimate sovereign, 
notwithstanding the efforts which have been made to 
cause them to disregard it." 

A few of the Acadians living at Chignecto, near 
Fort Beausejour, did leave" their homes and joined 
the French. Governor Mascarene sent them a mes- 
sage to the effect that if they wished to avoid the 
danger which threatened them, they should do as the 
others had done, and give an account of their conduct 
and show their allegiance to the government of the 
King of Great Britain. " In that case you shall still 
have me as your friend and servant. '* The few who 
violated their oath of allegiance to the English King 
did so largely through the influence of the priest 
La Loutre. They were anxious afterward to return, 
and were permitted to do so by the English Govern- 
ment. 



Tlieir Deportation and Wanderings, 63 

Haliburton, whose sympathies were naturally with 
the English, referring to the readiness with which 
the Acadians complied with the order to surrender 
their arms and boats, says : ^' The orders against the 
French population, directing them to surrender their 
arms and the giving up of their boats, were complied 
with in a manner which might have convinced the 
Government that they had no serious intention of an 
insurrection." The same author remarks that the 
Government did not always conciliate, or show a dis- 
position to win the affections of the people. He cites 
the act of Captain Murray in demanding of the in- 
habitants of Piziquid that they furnish his detach- 
ment with wood for fuel, or he would use their houses 
for that purpose, and if they did not furnish timber 
for the repairs of the fort they would suffer military 
execution. 

We have endeavored to give, as a fitting setting to 
the final scene in the tragedy of the Acadians, the 
early French explorations; their fruitless attempts 
at settlement on the eastern coast; their settlements 
at the mouth of the Mississippi and the character of 
the settlers there; the wars between the ^ew Eng- 
land colonies and the Indians; the quarrels of 
Xa Tour and Charnisay; the frequent shifting of gov- 
ernment from one power to the other; the attacks on 
the Acadians and the destruction of their homes. 
All this brings us to the period immediately preced- 
ing the final edict for their expulsion. 



CHAPTER XI. 

DEATH OF COLOIsrEL NOBLE. 

One event which occurred in the winter of 174Y-8 
should be mentioned at this time, since it has been 
unjustly charged to the inhabitants of Minas and the 
surrounding settlements. This was the attack of 
Captain Coulon de Villiers on the English garrison 
at Minas. It will be remembered that after the fall 
of Louisbourg the Erench sent an armament for its 
recapture. This attempt failed, as we have seen, 
and a detachment of the fleet, under Captain Rame- 
say, took charge of the French fort at Beausejour, at 
the head of a narrow neck of land which connects the 
peninsula of 'Noysl Scotia with 'New Brunswick. 

Their presence here, and the threats made against 
the Acadians if they did not join them in operations 
against the weak English garrison at Annapolis, 
greatly alarmed the Acadians, who feared not only 
the savages whom the French soldiery always had in 
their employ, but the New England colonists, and 
the authorities at Annapolis. Mascarene, the Gov- 
ernor of the Province of IsTova Scotia, asked for re- 
inforcements, and Governor Shirley sent ^Ye hun- 
dred troops, under Colonel Arthur l!Toble. IsToble 
landed at Annapolis, and with about one hundred 
men started to march overland to Minas. The others 



Historical Sketch of thi Acadians. Q5 

started by water, but the winds and the floating ice 
made the passage difficult if not impossible. They 
were forced to land at French Cross, or Morden, more 
than forty miles from Grand-Pre, or Minas. Here 
began a weary march overland, through deep snow, 
in the face of severe storms, and through a trackless 
wilderness, over the rugged J^orth Mountain. 

After eight days of intense suffering they arrived 
at Grand-Pre. Here they were received with great 
hospitality by the people, who willingly gave up their 
homes for the accommodation of the soldiers. The 
ships with the stores reached their destination. The 
soldiers were quartered in twenty-four houses in the 
village, for a mile and a half along the highway. 

It was now December, and winter had set in with 
all its fury. The snow was three feet deep, and the 
rivers and bay were full of floating ice. ISToble and 
his soldiers were living on the best the land afforded, 
and were resting in apparent security. He had 
selected for his headquarters a stone house in the 
center of the village. " It was his intention to march 
against the French quartered at Beausejour, then 
under the command of Ramesay, but the severity of 
the winter and the depth of the snow made the ven- 
ture seem impossible, so he rested content and in 
fancied security from attack. He was repeatedly 
warned against an attack by the French and Indians, 
the latter being much incensed against the Acadians 
and English, but friendly with the Canadians and 
French. He was told by the Acadians that it was the 



QQ Historical Sketch of the Acadians. 

intention of Ramesay to attack him, but he paid little 
heed to this warning. 

Let us glance for a few moments at what was trans- 
piring among the French. We quote from the forci- 
ble and accurate description of the only living de- 
scendant of the Acadian exiles now residing in or 
near Grand-Pre, Mr. John Frederick Herbin, of 
Wolfville, who has spent years in studying the life 
and character of his " mother's people." 

" Meanwhile word had reached Ramesay of the 
arrival of the troops at Grand-Pre, and he learned 
that it was Colonel iNToble's intention to march 
against him in the spring. But he was misinformed 
as to the number of soldiers under Noble. He was 
told that there were two hundred and twenty, which 
was less than half the actual number. Ramesay had 
already made two arduous but fruitless marches to 
Annapolis. On the return from the last of these he 
had severely hurt his knee, and was unable to march. 
Calling a council of his officers, he proposed a bold 
enterprise, to which they gave eager assent. 

" The proposal was to attack the enemy by a* rapid 
march and night attack on Grand-Pre. As Ramesay 
was unable to lead the party, the command fell to 
the gallant Captain Ooulon De Villiers. Immediate 
preparations were made for the march. Provisions 
were collected, snow shoes and sledges were prepared, 
and in a short time the party was ready for the start. 
There was but one way to reach Grand-Pre, and that 
was by making the distance through the woods and 



Their Deportation and Wanderings. 67 

across the rivers near their head. The snow was over 
three feet deep, and the long march would afford but 
little shelter to these hardy warriors. In four days 
all arrangements were complete. Coulon had under 
his command two hundred and forty Canadians and 
twenty Indians. Here were the flower of the war- 
like Canadian noblesse — Coulon De Villiers, who, 
seven years later, defeated Washington; Beaujeau, 
the hero of future fights, a bold and determined war- 
rior, without the appearance of it ; the Chevalier de la 
Corne, Saint Pierre, Lanaudiere, Saint-ours, Deslig- 
neris, Courtemanche, Repentigney, Boisherbert, 
Gaspe, Colombier, Marin, Lusignan. 

" On the twenty-first of January the company 
started on its long march. Mile after mile they 
dragged their snow sledges along, each with its pro- 
visions. There could be wavering now. Their long, 
winding track was as the trail of a serpent, whose 
instinct led it to its prey. Over hills and through val- 
leys and swamps they moved, till night overtook and 
compelled them to rest, and slumber came to their 
weary bodies. 

" Through the storms of snow and wind, or in the 
sharp frost of the Acadian forests, they marched in 
the day time. At night they were often glad to rest 
in holes scooped out of the soft snow, in such shelter 
as the forests offered. Many a meal they ate, thaw- 
ing the frozen food in their mouths. Over the moun- 
tains and gorges of the Cobequids they tramped. 
At the head of the bay they were met by messengers 



68 Historical Sketch of the Acadians. 

who brought them intelligence as to the exact num- 
ber of the English at Grand-Pre, and what had been 
done there. This was startling news, but it did not 
deter them. They were able to procure provisions at 
the villages they were now passing through, and 
recruits were added to their ranks. On reaching the 
Eiver Shubenacadie, near the head of the basin of 
Minas, they found it impassable from floating ice. 
Coulon resolved that the river must be crossed by a 
small party at this point to guard the road to Grand- 
Pre, so that intelligence might not be carried to the 
English of their approach. They were in territory 
now where the Erench were more favorable to the 
English." 

It may be well to explain here that many of the 
settlers near the French fort on the north, and those 
living beyond the Basin of Minas, were influenced by 
their close proximity as well as their natural feelings, 
to say nothing of the fear of a rude soldiery, and this 
induced some of them to take sides with the Erench, 
while possibly some were forced to join Coulon's 
expedition. 

These, however, must not be confused with the 
Acadians of Grand-Pre and the surrounding country, 
nor can the Acadian proper be held responsible for 
the acts of his brothers east of the Basin of Minas. 
The main body, under Coulon, continued up the river 
for three days before they could cross. They joined 
the others, and in a few days reached the town of 
Piziquid (Windsor), fifteen miles from Grand-Pre. 



Their Deportation and Wanderings. 69 

Here they rested until noon of the 10th, when they 
began their march through a snowstorm, moving 
slowly until they reached the Graspereau River, just 
south of the present village of Grand-Pre, a mile and 
a half from their destination. Half frozen in the 
storm, they had to wait an hour for nightfall before 
they went any farther. When it grew dark they 
approached the village of Melanson, on the bank of 
the Gaspereau. Each of the parties took possession 
of one of the houses, and in a short time the shivering 
men were enjoying the warmth of fires made in the 
great fireplaces of the Acadian peasants. 

Where Coulon, the leader, found shelter, a wed- 
ding feast was going on. The arrival of these armed 
men, and the prospect of bloodshd, was a violent 
interruption to the happy proceedings. Do you say 
the Acadian peasants gave him information as to the 
English, and were, therefore, disloyal to their Eng- 
lish masters ? Perhaps so, but how long can a man 
hesitate with a bayonet at his breast ? They had 
learned from bitter experience, from the armed forces 
of both sides, the lesson of yielding. 

The English were quartered in twenty-four houses, 
scattered along a mile of the village street. Coulon 
realized that he took great chances unless he could 
make a simultaneous attack on all the houses, as the 
English outnumbered him. He had over three hun- 
dred men, so, dividing them into ten groups, he 
determined to make a simultaneous attack on the 
principal lodgments of the English, as his force was 



70 Historical Sketch of the Acadians. 

not large enough to attack them all at one time. The 
larger number, under his immediate command, was 
to be concentrated on the stone house occupied by 
Colonel JSToble. 

He quietly and stealthily marched through the 
blinding snow, and at two o'clock in the morning fell 
upon the unsuspecting and sleeping men. The sen- 
tinel fired his gun, but was instantly shot; and then 
began a massacre as merciless as any committed by 
the Indians for the time it lasted. The English 
fought valiantly, and only surrendered when half 
their number were dead or wounded, Coulon was 
wounded at the first fire from the house of Colonel 
!N'oble. Colonel ^oble was shot twice, but continued 
to fire his pistols. The French called on him to sur- 
render, but he refused, and in the next volley he was 
shot through the head and died instantly. The loss 
of the English was one hundred killed, one hundred 
and fifteen wounded, and fifty captured, while the 
French loss was seven killed and fifteen wounded. 



CHAPTER XII. 

CHEBUCTO HALIFAX. 

In the Slimmer of 1749 Edward Cornwallis was 
appointed Governor-General of Xova Scotia, and 
soon afterward arrived at Chebiicto harbor, which 
had been discovered two years before. Here Halifax 
was founded, which became the seat of government 
in place of Annapolis. Halifax is abont sixty miles 
southeast from the settlements at Minas, on one of 
the finest harbors in the world. From Halifax to the 
Acadian settlements at that time there was nothing 
but a trail. Roads were soon built under the direc- 
tion of the Governor, and Cornwallis began his harsh 
and haughty rule over the Acadian peasants. The 
Acadian population at this time, according to the best 
authorities, English and French, numbered about ten 
thousand. 

Cornwallis was called upon shortly after his arrival 
at Halifax by Claude Le Blanc, of Grand-Pre, and 
Jean Melanson, of Canard, representatives of the 
Acadian people, to pay their respects to the new 
Governor, and to ask to be permitted to remain as 
English subjects under the oath that they had taken 
years before under Phillips, namely, that they should 
not be required to take up arms against the French. 
They were given three months to take the oath or 
forfeit a]] their possessions. 



72 Historical Sketch of the Acadians. 

The Governor's deputies were sent to ascertain the 
situation with reference to compliance with this 
order. They brought back the reply. It was a peti- 
tion signed by more than a thousand inhabitants of 
Minas and the surrounding country asking to remain 
under the old oath, or be permitted to leave the 
country. 

Cornwallis, finding them determined in standing 
out for the qualified oath, made harsh threats against 
them, which he, however, did not carry into execu- 
tion. His attention soon became engrossed with the 
rapid growth and development of Halifax, so that the 
inhabitants of Grand-Pre remained, with few excep- 
tions, on their farms. He wrote to the Lords of Trade 
that he hoped to make the Acadians as useful as pos- 
sible as long as they remained. He also issued the 
following proclamation to the Acadians : " Whoever 
shall leave this Province without first taking the oath 
of allegiance, shall immediately forfeit all his rights." 

The I^eutrals were firm in their intention to leave 
the country rather than to take another oath which 
protected them neither from the excesses of the Eng- 
lish ofiicials and soldiery nor from the aggressions of 
the French and Indians. They were loth to leave 
their homes and cast their lot with the French, as, 
after having so long lived under English sovereignty 
there was no assurance that the French would treat 
them any better, yet the doubt and uncertainty of 
the next move by Cornwallis did not serve to assure 
them of better conditions under their present rulers. 



Their Deportation and Wanderings. 73 

It was at this time that the priest La Loutre, who 
seems to have been ever a disturbing element in the 
affairs of the Acadians, was guilty of an act of 
treachery which recoiled on the heads of the inno- 
cent peasants of Minas, and afforded another excuse 
for English severity. 

La Loutre, who was working among the Micmacs 
and French at the isthmus, was unceasing in his 
efforts to have the Acadians leave their homes and 
join the French. On the isthmus were the two 
French forts, Beausejour and Gaspereau; on the 
opposite side of the river Misseguash was located the 
English fort, Lawrence. The French were enabled 
to reinforce and provision their garrisons from their 
settlements and forts in ^ew Brunswick. There was 
more or less friction at all times between the garri- 
sons of the two nations, and the machinations of 
La Loutre made matters worse. It was customary 
when any communication was to be had between the 
garrisons for officers of the contending forces to meet 
on neutral ground between the forts, under a flag of 
truce. 

La Loutre dressed an Indian in the uniform of a 
French officer and sent him out under a flag of truce. 
■Captain Howe, of the English garrison, saw the flag, 
and went in person to meet the supposed French offi- 
cer; when he neared the Indian he was fired on from 
ambush by a party of Micmacs and instantly killed. 
With such sinister influences at work, and such viola- 
tions of the laws of civilized warfare, it is not surpris- 



74. Historical Slcetch of thti Acadians. 

ing tliat the government at Halifax looked witli sus- 
picion on all persons of Frencli descent, and doubted 
the good faith of the Acadians. 

In the heat of passion and in the midst of such an 
armed truce, men are not given to the nice discrimi- 
nation and deliberate investigation which would 
throw the light of truth on such affairs, but jump at 
conclusions. Such was the case in the murder of 
Captain Howe. The people of Minas, although far 
from the scene of the tragedy, were considered 
particeps criminis, and unjustly so, as after investi- 
gation has shown. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

GOVERNOR HOrSON. 

We are now within two years or less of tlie final 
scene in the Acadian drama. Cornwallis was suc- 
ceeded by Hopson, a man of noble character, wisdom 
and prudence. He was more humane than his pre- 
decessor, and bore no resemblance to the heartless, 
grasping Lawrence who followed him. 

Could Hopson have remained at the head of the 
government at Halifax the foul blot of the Acadian 
expulsion would never have been thrown on the pages 
of American history. He saw at once the difficulty 
and unreasonableness of exacting, under existing con- 
ditions, the oath demanded by his predecessor. He 
knew how valuable to the country these people were, 
and could be made. The tone of his message to them 
shows clearly that he fully understood what had been 
the policy of the former government, and what treat- 
ment they had received at the hands of the soldiery. 
In his orders to the officers under him he says : " You 
are to look upon the Acadians in the same light with 
the rest of his Majesty's subjects, as to the protection 
of the laws and the government; for which reason 
nothing is to be taken from them by force, or any 
price set upon their goods but what they themselves 
agree to; and if at any time they should obstinately 
refuse to comply with what His Majesty's service 



76 Historical ShetcJi of the Acadians. 

may require of them, you are not to redress the 
wrong yourself by military force, or in any unlawful 
manner, but to lay the case before the Governor and 
await his orders. You are to cause the following 
orders to be stuck up in the most public part of the 
fort, both in English and French : 

"'1. No provisions or any other commodities that the 
Acadians shall bring to the fort to sell are to be taken from 
them at any fixed price, bnt to be paid for according to a free 
agreement made between them and the purchasers. 

" ' 2. No officer, non-commissioned officer or soldier shall 
presume to insult or otherwise abuse any of the Acadians^ 
who are upon all occasions to be treated as His Majesty's sub- 
jects, and to whom the laws of the country are open, to pro- 
tect as well as punish.' " 

Peace, prosperity and happiness came to the Aca- 
dians under the beneficent and humane treatment of 
Governor Hopson. The population at this time 
under English rule was about ten thousand; half of 
this number belonged to the region generally known 
as " Minas," consisting of the settlements of Habi- 
tant, Gaspereau and Grand-Pre. Two churches, in 
separate parishes, were attended by the people of the 
villages and surrounding settlements, one at Grand- 
Pre and the other at Canard. 

Here at this time we find the third generation of 
Acadians enjoying the rich fruits of their labors; the 
land, which had been reclaimed from the sea by 
means of dykes, yielded most bountifully. Coming 
up through generations of trials and harsh treatment 



Their Deportatioji and Wanderings. 77 

they had learned the lesson of patience and forbear- 
ance. They, as well as their ancestors, had suffered 
and endured, yet all was not gloom. Even in the 
midst of the uncertainty which hung over them there 
were days and months of sunshine. 

Haliburton, who was a resident of the territory, 
and who, it is known, had the opportunity of convers- 
ing with some of the older inhabitants, who are said 
to have witnessed the expulsion, says : '' Their habi- 
tations, which were of wood, were extremely conve- 
nient, and furnished as neatly as substantial farm- 
houses in Europe. They raised a great deal of stock 
and poultry of all kinds, which made a wholesome 
variety in their foods. Their flocks were computed 
at from sixty to seventy thousand head, and most 
families had horses, though the farming or tillage 
was done with oxen.'' Their clothing was the product 
of their own wool and flax, raised on their farms and 
spun and woven into cloth by the dexterous house- 
wives. Upon rare occasions some adorned themselves 
in the costly vestments of their French ancestors. 
" Eeal misery was unknown, and benevolence antici- 
pated the demands of poverty. Every misfortune 
was relieved, as it were, before it was felt, without 
ostentation on the one hand or meanness on the other. 
It was, in short, a society of brethren, every indi- 
vidual of which was equally ready to give and receive 
what he thought just and fair." 

The numerous fur-bearing animals of the region. 



78 Historical Sketch of the Acadians. 

such as the fox, martin, wild-cat, bear, 'beaver and 
moose, furnished furs for the winter wear. Game in 
great abundance and variety furnished food, as well 
as sport for the hunter, while the rivers, bays and 
lakes were alive with the choicest of fish. In addition 
to raising stock on the pasture lands reclaimed from 
the sea, the soil, both here and on the uplands, pro- 
duced an abundance of vegetables, as well as wheat, 
rye, flax and oats. The undyked lands produced 
grass which was much relished in the winter by the 
cattle. Orchards of the finest apple, peach, pear and 
cherry trees were planted on the uplands, and about 
the houses the smaller fruits were cultivated. They 
were in comfortable circumstances so far as their 
common needs were concerned. The strong ties of a 
common race, religion and kinship bound them 
together, and made of them one great family. 

"Matrons and maidens sat in snow-white caps and in kirtles 
Scarlet and blue and green, with distaffs spinning the golden 
Flax for the gossiping looms, whose noisy shuttles within 

doors 
Mingled their sound with the whirr of the wheels and the 

songs of the maidens." 

Their young men were possessed of a high sense of 
honor, integrity and morality, while their young 
women were pure, chaste, and, possessed of all the 
traits of a noble womanhood. The long Acadian win- 
ter was filled with a round of innocent social pleas- 
ures, such as dancing, singing and many games com- 
mon to the peasantry of France from whom they had 
descended. 



Their Deportation and Waiiderings. 79 

' Could we have entered an Acadian home on a win- 
ter night we would have found the big " back-log " 
in the generous fireplace, with a supply of wood piled 
high in the comer; the tongs, fire-shovel, and irons 
and crane, would have been in place, as they may yet 
be seen in some of our older farm-houses, although 
not in use. The mother and daughter at the spin- 
ning-wheel and loom, the father taking his evening 
smoke, while his sons are engaged in cleaning their 
rifles, mending a snow-shoe or some similar occu- 
pation. 

Presently a neighbor drops in to discuss local 
affairs, the fears of further troubles with the English 
or French as the case may be, or the prospects for 
the next season's crop; others drop in, and the cider 
and apples and cake are passed around. The evening 
is passed in pleasant social intercourse. Bedtime 
arrives, and the guests take their departure, with 
mutual " God keep you through the night." It is a 
picture of rural America in the early days, read about 
in the story books, but now, alas ! a thing of the past. 

Governor-General Hopson was succeeded by 
Charles Lawrence. Lawrence had been a member of 
the Council since 1746, and was Lieutenant-G-overnor 
under Cornwallis and Hopson. He had been a major 
in the English army, was a keen, intelligent, unscru- 
pulous, cruel and ambitious man. Much of the harsh- 
ness of Cornwallis towards the Acadians was due to 
the vicious counsel of Lawrence. Harbin says : " His 
antecedents were humble, but he, being endowed 



80 Historical Sketch of the Acadians. 

with more than ordinary ability, without the re- 
straints of a refined or noble nature, gave way, when 
opportunity offered for high purpose and manly 
action, to the baser and more sordid impulses which 
seem to have ruled his life. He was, moreover,, 
haughty and disdainful in manner. Without real 
friends, his acts received support from his agents and 
from those who were unable to resist him. Of low- 
cunning, a consummate flatterer of the higher, an 
oppressor of the weak, with profuse use of false 
promises, and every effort to accomplish his own per- 
sonal ends, Lawrence has the unenviable distinction 
of having caused the expatriation of the Acadians, 
and of having done it with great cruelty." 
/ " In the light of later facts thrown on their condi-^ 
tion, it is almost beyond belief that a people should 
be so patient and quietly persevering in their efforts 
to remain upon their lands under all the impositions 
practiced upon them. If individuals acted against the 
peace of the country, a most cruel persecution fol- 
lowed the whole people, thinly disguised under 
various pretexts. Their homes were their all, and 
they Lore insults and indignity for forty years in a 
vain hope that a time would come when they would 
be finally secure on the lands which their fathers had 
taken from the sea and made beautiful and rich 
beyond any in America." 

Lawrence had become familiar with the rich lands 
of the Acadians while he was a soldier doing duty in 
this part of the country, and when he became Gov- 



Their Deportation and Wanderings. 81 

ernor he had fully made up his mind to get posses- 
sion of them. To this end he trumped up false 
charges against the Acadians. His first act was to 
send a small detachment of soldiers from the garrison 
at Halifax, and one hundred from Fort Edward, who 
were distributed among the inhabitants, two to each 
house, and at midnight they seized their arms, all 
of which they could have had for the asking, and 
placed them on a boat that lay in waiting at Grand- 
Pre. He followed this seizure with a demand for all 
others to bring in their arms. They at once obeyed. 
The result was that almost five thousand were 
secured. 

Lawrence, up to this time, had not pressed the 
question of the oath. He wanted the refusal to serve 
as a good excuse for his later acts, and the time was 
not yet ripe for their deportation. He was deter- 
mined to make the conditions such that they would 
refuse to take the oath, and he did this by changing 
the oath to one which forced them to take up arms at 
once against the French. 

The inhabitants of Minas, and the other villages in 
that section, addressed the following petition to the 
Governor after the seizure of their arms : 

"We, the inhabitants of Minas, Piziquid and the river 
Canard, take the liberty of approaching your Excellency for 
the purpose of testifying our sense of the care which the Gov- 
ernment exercises over us. It appears, sir, that your Excel- 
lency doubts the sincerity with which we have promised to be 
faithful to His Britannic Majesty. We most humbly beg your 
Excellency to consider our past conduct. You will see that 



82 Historical Shetch of the Acadians. 

very far from violating the oath we have taken, we have main- 
tained it in its entirety, in spite of the solicitations and the 
dreadful threats of another power. We will entertain, sir, the 
same pure and sincere disposition to prove, under any circum- 
stances, our unshaken fidelity to His Majesty, provided th&,t 
His Majesty shall allow us the same liberty that he has 
granted us. We earnestly beg your Excellency to have the 
goodness to inform us of His Majesty's intentions on this sub- 
ject, and to give us assurances on his part. 

" Permit us, if you please, sir, to make known the annoying 
circumstances in which we are placed, to the prejudice of the 
tranquillity we ought to enjoy. Under pretext that we are 
transporting our corn or other provisions to Beausejour and 
the River St. John, we are no longer permitted to carry the 
least quantity of corn by water from one place to another. 
We beg your Excellency to be assured that we have never 
transported provisions to Beausejour or to the River St. John. 
If some refugee inhabitants from Beausejour have been seized 
with cattle, we axe not on that account by any means guilty, 
inasmuch as the cattle belonged to them as private individuals, 
and they were driving them to their respective habitations. 
As to ourselves, sir, we have never offended in that respect, and 
consequently we ought not, in our opinion, to be punished; on 
the contrary, we hope that your Excellency will be pleased to 
restore to us the same liberty that we enjoyed formerly, in 
giving us the use of our canoes, either to transport our goods 
from one river to another, or for the purpose of fishing; there- 
by providing for our livelihood. This permission has never 
been taken from us except at the present time. 

"We hope, sir, that you will be pleased to restore it, spe- 
cially in consideration of the number of poor inhabitants who 
would be very glad to support their families with the fish they 
would be able to catch. Moreover, our guns, which we regard 
as our own personal property, have been taken from us, not- 
withstanding the fact that they are absolutely necessary to us 
to defend our cattle which are attacked by wild beasts, or for 
the protection of our children and ourselves. 

" Any inhabitant who may have his oxen in the woods, and 
who may need them for purposes of labor, would not dare 



Their Deportation and Wanderings. 83 

expose himself in going for them without being prepared to 
defend himself. It is certain, sir, that since the Indians have 
ceased frequenting our parts, the wild beasts have greatly in- 
creased, and that our cattle are devoured by them almost every 
day. Besides, the arms which have been taken from us are 
but a feeble guarantee of our fidelity. It is not the gun which 
an inhabitant possesses that will make him more faithful; 
but his conscience alone must induce him to maintain his oath. 
An order has appeared in your Excellency's name, given at 
Fort Edward, June 24th, 1755, by which we are commanded 
to carry guns, pistols, etc., etc., to Fort Edward. It appears 
to us, sir, that it would be dangerous for us to execute that 
order before representing to you the danger to which this order 
exposes us. The Indians may come and threaten and plunder 
us, reproaching us for having furnished arms to kill them. 
We hope, sir, that you will be pleased, on the contrary, to or- 
der that those taken from us be restored to us. By so doing 
you will afford us the means of preserving both ourselves and 
our cattle. 

" In the last place, we are grieved, sir, at seeing ourselves 
declared guilty without being aware of having disobeyed. One 
of our inhabitants of the River Canard, named Pierre Melan- 
son, was seized and arrested in charge of his boat, before hav- 
ing heard of any order forbidding that sort of transport. We 
beg your Excellency, on this subject, to have the goodness to 
make known to us your good pleasure before confiscating our 
property and considering us in fault. This is the favor we 
expect from your Excellency's kindness, and we hope you will 
do us the justice to believe that, very far from violating our 
promises, we will maintain them ; assuring you that we are, 

" Very respectfully, sir, your humble and obedient servants." 

To the above petition the Governor replied as 
follows : 

"The memorial of the 10th of June is highly arrogant and 
insidious, and deserves the highest resentment." 

On the 24th of June a second petition was sent, in 
which thej^ apologized for anything they may have 



84 Historical Sketch of the Acadians. 

said, and disclaimed any intention of being without 
respect for the Government. This was signed by 
forty-four inhabitants, representing the people of 
Minas, Canard and Piziquid. The delegates bearing 
this petition appeared before the Governor, where- 
upon he gave them twenty-four hours in which to take 
an oath in which it was now expressly set forth that 
they were to bear arms against the French. The dele- 
gates begged to be permitted to return and consult 
with their people. This the Governor refused, and on 
the following day he asked for their answer. They 
replied that they could give no answer without first 
consulting with their people. They were now treated 
as prisoners of war. 

On the 5th of July one hundred more delegates 
called upon Lawrence, and begged for the release of 
their imprisoned fellows : " Charity for our detained 
inhabitants and their innocents oblige us to beg your 
Excellency to be touched by our miseries and restore 
to them their liberty, with possible submission and 
profound respect." To this petition Lawrence 
replied with the question, " Will you or will you not 
swear to the King of Great Britain that you will take 
up arms against the King of France, his enemy ? " 
The answer was not less laconic than the question. 
" Since," they said, ^' we are asked only for a yes 
or no we will answer unanimously, ISTo," adding, how- 
ever, that what was required of them tended to 
despoil them of their religion and everything else. 

Immediately the Governor gave orders to trans- 



Their Deportation and Wanderings. 85 

port them to a small island, distant as far as a can- 
non-ball would carry from Halifax, whither they 
w^ere conducted like criminals, and where they 
remained until the end of October, fed on a little 
bread, and deprived of the possibility of receiving 
any assistance as well as of speaking to any one. 

The Governor imagined that this harshness would 
soften their courage; he found them as firm as ever. 
He took the resolution of betaking himself to the 
aforesaid island with a numerous retinue, accom- 
panied by all the instruments of torture, in order to 
try to soften their courage at the sight of this spec- 
tacle. In the midst of this display, befitting a tyrant, 
he asked them if they persisted in their answers. 
One of them replied, " Yes, and more than ever; we 
have God for us, and that is enough." The Gov- 
ernor drew his sword and said, ^^ Insolent fellow; you 
deserve that I should run my sword through your 
body.'' The peasant presented his breast to him, and, 
drawing nearer, said, " Strike, if you dare ; I shall be 
the first martyr of the band; you can kill my body, 
but you shall not kill my soul.'' The Governor, in a 
sort of frenzy, asked the others if they shared the 
feelings of " that insolent fellow," who had just 
spoken. All with one voice exclaimed, " Yes, sir; 
yes, sir." 

The whole trend of Lawrence's acts up to this time 
had been in keeping with his well-defined and settled 
plan of driving the Acadians from their homes. 



CHAPTER XIY. 

THE EXPULSION. 

"Four days now are passed since the English ships at their anchors 
Ride in the Gaspereau's mouth, with their cannon pointed against us. 
What their design may he is unknown ; hut all are commanded 
On the morrow to meet in the church, where his Majesty's mandate 
Will he proclaimed as law in the land. Alas ! in the meantime 
Many surmises of evil alarm the hearts of the people." 

We now come to the climax in tlie drama which 
forms the basis of Longfellow's " Evangeline." In 
August, 1755, an expedition under the command of 
Colonel Robert Monckton, an English officer, but 
composed largely of ^ew England troops (about fif- 
teen hundred), under Colonel Winslow, was sent to 
capture the French forts. Winslow captured Eort 
Beausejour, and a few weeks later became the chief 
instrument for the forcible removal of the Acadian 
peasants. 

He now took up his quarters at G-rand-Pre to await 
the arrival of the transports which were on their way 
from Boston, where Governor Lawrence had quietly 
made arrangements for hiring them. The Council, 
under Lawrence, and those officers who were sworn 
to secrecy with him, decided " to remove all the 
French inhabitants out of the Province, if they 
refused to take the oath." At a meeting of this 
Council, July 28th, " after mature consideration it 
was unanimously agreed that to prevent as much as 
possible their attempting to return to molest the set- 
tlers that may be set down on their lands, it would be 



Historical Shetch of the Acadians. 87 

most proper to send them to be distributed amongst 
tbe several colonies on the continent, and that a suf- 
ficient number of vessels should be hired with all pos- 
sible expedition for that purpose . . . and dispose 
of them as best suits our design in preventing their 
reunion." 

Lawrence's final orders were that " the inhabitants 
must be collected bj force or stratagem, not paying 
any attention to any remonstrance or memorial from 
any inhabitant whatever, who may be desirous of 
staying behind, but to embark every person accord- 
ing to instructions sent." Upon the arrival of the 
vessels, as many of the inhabitants as could be col- 
lected by any means, particularly the heads of fami- 
lies and young men, were to be shipped on board of 
them at the rate of two persons per ton burthen of 
the vessels. They were to be supplied with five 
pounds of flour and one pound of pork, to be delivered 
to each person so shipped to last seven days. The 
men in charge of the vessels were charged to use 
every precaution to prevent the captives from seizing 
the vessels, and were not to allow many on deck at 
the same time, and that they be sure that all are 
without arms or weapons of any kind. 

Everything was now in readiness. The vessels 
were already collecting in the Basin of Minas. Win- 
slow was scouring the country in all directions with 
his officers, to become familiar with the situation. 
The correspondence between Colonel Winslow, Gov- 
ernor Lawrence and Captain Murray in reference to 



88 Historical Sketch of the Acadians. 

the Acadians, and the scheme for their dispersion, 
is most interesting; in it can be read on, as well as 
between the lines, the heartless conspiracy against 
the Acadians. 

Halifax was a growing English town, and this fer- 
tile inland country was needed to supply the ever- 
growing demands of the garrison and the people. 
Winslow, in one of his letters to Governor Lawrence, 
says : " Adams and party returned this morning from 
their march to the Kiver Canard, and reported it was 
a fine country, full of inhabitants,, and a beautiful 
church; abundance of the goods of this world and pro- 
visions of all kinds in plenty." Of the visit to the vil- 
lages of Melanson and E-iver Gaspereaux he says: 
" Both parties which returned this evening gave each 
an account that it was a fine country.'' And yet this 
fine and beautiful country, with its churches, homes, 
villages, farms, grain, fruit and live stock, was soon 
to be devastated, and its unsuspecting inhabitants 
scattered far and wide among a strange and un- 
friendly people. 

Captain Murray, who was at Fort Edward (now 

Windsor) writes to Colonel Winslow : 

"I was out yesterday at the villages. All the people were 
quite busy at the harvest. If this day keeps fair, all will be 
in here into their barns. I hope to-morrow will crown all our 
wishes. " Yours most truly, etc., 

" Murray." 

Winslow held a consultation with Captain Mur- 
ray at Fort Edward, and on September 2d, issued the 
following citation : 



Their Deportation and Wanderings. 89 

"Whereas, His Excellency, the Governor, has instructed us 
of his late resolution respecting the matter proposed to the 
inhabitants, and has ordered us to communicate the same in 
person, His Excellency being desirous that each of them should 
be satisfied of His Majesty's intentions, which he has also or- 
dered us to communicate to you, as they have been given to 
him : We therefore order and strictly, by these presents, all of 
the inhabitants of the above-named districts, both old and 
young men as well as the lads of ten years of age, to attend 
at the Church at Grand-Pre, on Friday the 5th instant, at three 
in the afternoon, that we may impart to them, that we were 
ordered to communicate to them, declaring that no excuse will 
be admitted on any pretence whatever on the pain of forfeit- 
ing goods and chattels, in default of real estate. 

"Given at Grand-Pre, 2nd Septembre, 1755. 

"John Winslow." 

Less than three days intervened between the cita- 
tion of Colonel Winslow and the ever memorable 
5th of September, which sealed the fate of thousands 
of thrifty, frugal and peaceable people. On this day 
they were to meet in the sacred edifice in which they 
had so often met for divine worship, a chnrch hal- 
lowed by all the ties and associations sacred to a sim- 
ple and devout people, there to receive a message, 
the purport of which they were entirely ignorant, and 
whose consequences they were wholly unprepared to 
meet. Until the last few hours of that day many of 
the unsuspecting peasantry were employed gather- 
ing in their harvests and making all the necessary- 
preparations for the coming winter. Indeed, there 
were not a few who hoped that now, with a strong 
garrison in their midst to protect them, their trials 
were at last to come to an end. This delusion was 



90 Historical Sketch of the Acadians. 

dispelled a few hours later. Little did they dream, 
as they gathered about their firesides on the evening 
of the 4th of September, that to many families it 
was the last reunion. They wondered at and dis- 
cussed the latest citation; young and old were pre- 
pared to obey it. In some homes were the aged, 
infirm and dying; in others the joy and happiness of 
youth, the joy of the young father and mother as they 
gaze on the tiny first-born as it lies smiling in its 
rude wooden cradle. There may have been dark 
forebodings of coming ill, but not the wildest imagi- 
nation could grasp the terrible reality. Citations and 
orders were not new to them, and they had always 
obeyed them to the letter; what the morrow meant 
for them they did not know, but surely nothing worse 
than what had preceded. It might be that His 
Majesty had decided to grant their petitions and 
restore to them their arms and boats, and allow them 
the free use of both, or it might mean additional 
restrictions, but deportation, never. 

"Pleasantly rose next mom the sun on the village of Grand- 
Prg. 
Pleasantly gleamed in the soft, sweet air the Basin of Minas, 
Where the ships, with their wavering shadows, were riding 

at anchor. 
Life had long been astir in the village, and clamorous labor 
Knocked with its hundred hands at the golden gates of the 

morning. 
Now from the country around, from the farms and neighbor- 
ing hamlets, 
Came in their holiday dresses, the blithe Acadian peasants.'* 





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Theii' Deportation and Wanderings. 91 

The morning of the 5th of September dawned 
bright and clear; the sun shone with a splendor 
befitting this cool northern climate ; the brown thrush 
was singing his farewell in the orchard, and the 
quail was whistling his " bob white " down in the 
meadow; the migratory birds were heading for 
warmer climes, while the crow from his lofty tree 
was cawing in mocking glee over his sole possession 
of the land through the long and dreary winter fast 
approaching. The chores and household duties were 
attended to with the accustomed care and regularity, 
and in many households preparations were made for 
an early start for GTrand-Pre, as some had many miles 
to go to reach the place of gathering. 

Old men, young men and boys wended their way 
from Canard, Pereau, Habitant, from the Gaspereau 
valley, Avonport and all the villages of Minas, by the 
roads converging on Grand-Pre. Four hundred and 
eighteen men, the sturdy sons of toil, clad in their 
rough, but clean and neat homespun clothes, entered 
the church of St. Charles at the appointed hour. It 
was in this church that they had been christened and 
many of them married. Here, too, they had received 
the Holy Sacrament. Winslow records in his journal 
that " at three in the afternoon the French inhabi- 
tants appeared, agreeable to their citation, at the 
church in Grand-Pre, amounting to four hundred and 
eighteen of their best men : upon which I ordered a 
table to be set in the center of the church, and having 



92 Historical SJcetch of fJie Acadians. 

attended with those of my officers who were off 
guard, delivered to them by interpreters the King's 
orders." 

"Gentlemen: I have received from His Excellency, Governor 
Lawrence, the King's commission, which I have in my hands; 
and by his orders you are convened together to manifest to 
you His Majesty's final resolution to the French inhabitants 
of this Province of Nova Scotia: who for almost a half century 
have had more indulgence granted them than any other of his 
subjects in any part of his dominions: what use you have 
made of it, you yourselves best know. The part of duty I am 
now upon, though necessary, is very disagreeable to my make 
and temper, as I know it must be grievous to you, who are of 
the same species; but it is not my business to animadvert, but 
to obey such orders as I receive, and therefore, without hesita- 
tion, shall deliver you His Majesty's orders and instructions; 
namely — that your lands and tenements, cattle of all kinds 
and live stock of all sorts, are forfeited to the crown; with all 
other your effects, saving your money and household goods and 
yourselves, to be removed from this Province. Thus it is per- 
emptorily His Majesty's orders, that the whole French in- 
habitants in these districts be removed: and I am, through His 
Majesty's goodness, directed to allow you liberty to carry off 
your money and household goods, as many as you can without 
discommoding the vessels you go in. I shall do everything in 
my power that all these goods be secured to you, and that you 
are not molested in carrying them off: and also that whole 
families shall go in the same vessels, and make this remove, 
which I am sensible must make you a great deal of trouble, as 
easy as his Majesty's service will admit; and hope that in 
whatever part of the world you may fall, you may be faith- 
ful subjects, a peaceable and happy people. I must also inform 
you that it is His Majesty's pleasure that you remain in se- 
curity under the inspection and direction of the troops I have 
the honor to command." 

The blow had fallen; — a bolt of lightning from a 
clear sky. The men were stupefied, dazed ; the awful- 



TJieir Deportation and Wanderings, 93 

ness of their fate slowly impressed itself upon them. 
They were prisoners in their own church, sur- 
rounded by hostile troops, and separated from their 
wives and children. 

The words of Winslow, although couched in as 
mild terms as his language would admit, yet contained 
no words of hope or cheer. Their destination was 
not even pointed out to them. All that they ^vere 
certain of was that they were being despoiled of their 
homes and the fruits of the labors of three genera- 
tions of hard-working, industrious and frugal ances- 
tors; that they were to go out into a strange world 
poverty-stricken and friendless. The bulk of their 
property was in their farms and flocks; — of money 
they had little. 

Winslow, after delivering the edict of banishment, 
retired to the parish house, which he had been occupy- 
ing since his arrival at Grand-Pre. Some of the older 
Acadians besought him to consider the condition of 
their famihes, and allow a small delegation of men 
to return to their homes and let their people know 
of their sad condition. Finally, after consultation 
with his officers, he permitted ten to return each day 
for the five days intervening between their imprison- 
ment and the first embarcation, the 10th of Sep- 
tember. 

Winslow closes the day's business with the follow- 
ing remarks in his journal: " The French people not 
having with them any provisions, and many of them 
pleading hunger, begged for bread, on which I gave 



94 Historical Shetch of the Acadians. 

them, and ordered that for the future they be sup- 
plied from their respective families. Thus ended the 
memorable 5th day of September, a day of great 
fatigue and trouble.'' 

Thus ended the day so far as Winslow was con- 
cerned, but how about the poor wretches imprisoned 
in the church, and those at home who were anxiously 
awaiting their return ? One would like to draw the 
curtain and hide from view the sorrow and mental 
suffering of the next few days, but the historian and 
the poet have long since given to the world the story. 
The news spread rapidly to each and every fireside, 
where, with anxious solicitude, mothers and children 
were awaiting the return of fathers, sons and 
brothers. 

We can imagine their consternation when late in 
the evening they were apprised of their terrible fate. 

Contrary to all expectation of their persecutors, 
they received their sentence and bore their incarcera- 
tion with a fortitude and resignation befitting Chris- 
tian martyrs. If all history were silent as to the 
peaceable character of the Acadians, no better evi- 
dence would be needed than their heroic conduct at 
this time. To all pleas to be permitted to visit their 
families, assist those who needed their care, and to 
gather together their worldly effects, Winslow turned 
a deaf ear, except to permit ten men each day, out of 
four hundred and eighteen, to return, and this for 
-Q-ve days. 

During the next few days the soldiers scoured the 



Their Deportation and Wanderings. 95 

country in all directions in search of those who had 
not reported at Grand-Pre. Under this pretext, and 
the license granted them by Lawrence, they searched 
the houses, appropriated to their own use what they 
desired, and destroyed what they could not carry off. 
Women were insulted, scoffed at and maltreated, and 
in some instances outraged. Lawrence had not only 
given his soldiers license, but positive orders, to " dis- 
tress them as much as possible.'' 

For three days wains loaded with the goods and 
effects of the peasants were being drawn to the land- 
ing, a mile or more below the church, and " here on 
the bank lay in confusion the household goods of the 
peasants.'' '' All over the country dense clouds of 
smoke arose to the sky as the sun was sinking in the 
west, and later the heavens were aglow with the light 
from hundreds of burning buildings. The cows 
returning burdened with milk patiently and piteously 
called for the milk-maid to perform her daily task and 
thus give relief; the horses whinnying for their food; 
the chickens cackling and crovdng, startled by the 
unusual glare; the bellowing of cattle, enveloped in 
flames; the cries and moans of distressed women and 
children, all added to the horror of a scene without 
a parallel in American history." 

In the Basin of Minas already lay five transports, 
with nine more to come. According to the order, 
two thousand persons were to be shipped from Minas, 
and the distribution was to be as follows : To IN'orth 
Carolina, ^ye hundred; to Virginia, one thousand; to 



96 Historical 8hetch of the Acadians. 

Maryland, five hundred, or in proportion if tlie num- 
ber to be shipped off should exceed two thousand per- 
sons. Of the transports assembled at Annapolis the 
distribution was as follows: To be sent to Philadel- 
phia, such a number as will transport three hundred 
persons; to 'New York, sufficient to transport two 
hundred persons; to Connecticut, sufficient to trans- 
port three hundred persons, and to Boston, such a 
number of vessels as will transport two hundred per- 
sons, or rather more in proportion to Connecticut, 
should the number to be shipped off exceed one^ 
thousand. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE EMBARKATION. 

Thus to the Gaspereau's mouth they hurried and there on the sea-beach 

Piled in coi{f'u^ion lay the household ijoods of the peasants. 

All day long between the shore and the sJiips did the boats ply ; 

All day long the wains came laboring down from the village. 

Late in the Oit'temoon when the sun was near to his setting. 

Echoed far o'er the fields came the roll of drums/rom the churchyard. 

Thither the women a7id children thronged. On a sudden the churchdoors 

Opened, and forth came the guard, and inarching in gloomy procession 

Followed the long-imprisoned, hut patient, Acadian farmers. 

Even as pilgrims, who journey afar from their homes and their country. 

Sing as they go, and in singing forget they are weary and wayworn. 

So with songs on their lips the Acadian peasants descended 

Down from the church to the shore, amid their wives and their daughters. 

On the 10th of the month the first loading of the 
transports began. The five days' imprisonment and 
separation from their loved ones, the intense strain 
upon their nerves, and the mental anguish, had by 
this time begun to tell on the prisoners. Winslow, 
noticing the restlessness manifested among them, 
became somewhat alarmed, and concluded to place 
fifty men on each transport then at anchor in the bay 
and thus lessen the danger. Summoning their leader, 
Pierre Landry, who spoke English, Winslow ac^ 
quainted him with his intention of embarking two 
hundred and fifty of the men and boys. Landry 
pleaded with him not to separate the children and 
young men from their parents, and husbands from 
their wives, but to permit them to go together, and 
to give them time to collect their goods. He and 
others petitioned Winslow to be permitted to go 
among his people, and that they themselves would 
pay all the expense. 



98 Historical Sketch of the Acadians. 

Their pleadings were in vain. Winslow turned a 
deaf ear to all their appeals, and sternly ordered the 
guard to draw up in line to enforce his command that 
all ^^ unmarried men and boys should form six deep 
and be marched to the landing.'' 

There were eighty soldiers under Captain Adams 
in charge of this contingent. The command was 
given to march, but, overwhelmed with grief at the 
thought of being separated from their families and 
parents, they refused to move. Cries of grief and 
anger, mingled with tears and pleadings for mercy, 
prayers and petitions, rent the balmy air of that 
bright September day. All that they asked was that 
Colonel Winslow would carry out his promise, made 
in the church on the day of their incarceration, that 
families should not be separated. 

The next command was : " Fix bayonets — 
Charge ! " — a most powerful incentive to move 
unarmed men. And now began one of the saddest 
processions the bright sun of heaven ever looked 
down upon. From the church they moved down the 
road to the landing, singing hymns, praying and cry- 
ing as each might be affected. On either side of the 
road stood their mothers, sisters and sweethearts, 
wringing their hands in despair. The same scene 
was repeated when the older men were marched down 
to the boats, until the entire male population of 
Minas was on board the transports. The number 
embarked the first day was two hundred and thirty. 

" All day the boats plied between the ships and 



Their Deportation and Wanderings. 99 

the shore." This expression is better understood 
when we remember that the tides in the Bay of 
Fundj and the Basin of Minas rise from thirty to 
sixty feet, and that at low tide the vessels were some 
miles out in the basin. On the shore, without home 
or shelter, crouched the women and children about 
their few household goods; there, too, were the aged 
and infirm, many forced from beds of sickness to die 
on the sands of the shore, and there be hastily buried. 

" Thus to the Gaspereau's mouth moved on that mournful pro- 
cession. 

There disorder prevailed, and the tumult and stir of embark- 
ing. 

Busily plied the freighted boats; and in the confusion 

Wives were torn from their husbands, and mothers, too late, 
saw their children 

Left on the land, extending their arms, with wildest en- 
treaties. 

So unto separate ships were Basil and Gabriel carried." 

It was the 8th of October before the final embar- 
cation took place, owing to the delay in getting trans- 
ports. The entire country, with the exception of 
Grand-Pre, had been desolated, and the houses and 
bams of the people burned; those at G-rand-Pre were 
destroyed later in the fall, when the soldiers left the 
place. Winslow says in his journal : " On the 8th 
we began to embark the inhabitants, who went off 
sullenly and unwillingly, the women in great distress, 
carrying off their children in their arms ; others carry- 
ing their decrepit parents in their carts, with all their 
goods, moving in great confusion, and it appeared a 
^., Of t 



100 Historical Sketch of the Acadians. 

scene of woe and distress." In the confusion and 
haste, naturally complicated by the difference in lan- 
guage, and the utter disregard on the part of the 
officers to listen to the appeals of the unfortunates, 
" wives were torn from their husbands, and mothers 
too late saw their children left on the land, extending 
their arms in wildest entreaty.'' 

Colonel Winslow went to Fort Edward, fifteen 
miles farther east, where the people were gathered 
together from Habitant and Canard Eivers, ready 
for embarkation from Budro's Point. Similar scenes 
were enacted here, but the few vessels sent to this 
point were hardly sufficient to accommodate the peo- 
ple, much less their goods, and the latter were left on 
the shore. 

Six years later, when the English began to settle 
upon the rich and fertile lands of the people whom 
they had displaced and dispersed, the broken and 
decayed remains of carts, wagons, furniture, etc., 
found on the shore were all that was left to tell the 
story of the once happy Acadian occupation. 

I cannot close this chapter better than with a 
quotation from Herbin : " I shall not dwell on this 
closing scene of the Acadian occupation of Grand- 
Pre and Minas. Harsh words are useless. The chief 
designer, Lawrence, has been stigmatized as having 
brought about the deportation of the Acadians. Of 
the same blood and race as these exiles, I have been 
a dweller of Minas for thirteen years. My home has 
been in the midst of the dykes and marshes, in sight 



Their Deportation and Wanderings, 101 

of the Grand-Pre, the Basin of Minas. I have visited 
a great part of the country of Minas once occupied 
by the Acadians. The mllows, set out by them, mark 
the sites of many of their former villages. Their 
orchards still bear fruit, and their cellar walls yet 
mark the places where they lived and died, and from 
Avhich hundreds were driven to leave their bones in 
other places. My ancestors found their way back to 
N^ova Scotia, and settled on the shores of St. Mary's 
Bay, where their numerous descendants are to-day. 
By some strange chance I am here, the only Acadian 
of whom I know living amid the same scenes that 
knew the people of Minas from 1671 to 1755." 



CHAPTEK XVI. 

THE ACADIAN IN EXILE. 

Many a weary year had passed since the burning of Grand-Prt, 

When on the falling tide the freighted vessels departed. 

Bearing a nation, with all its household gods, into exile. 

Exile without an end, and without an example in story. 

Far asunder on separate coasts, the Acadians landed, 

Scattered were they, like flakes of snow, when the wind from the northeast 

Strikes aslant through the fogs that darken the Banks of Newfoundland. 

Friendless, homeless, hopeless, they wandered from city to city. 

Asked of the earth hut a grave, and no longer a friend nor a fireside. 

To follow these people in their wanderings as 
exiles would be but to lengthen the story of their 
sufferings. The people of the colonies were unwilling 
to receive among them '^ so undesirable and danger- 
ous a foe/' for such Lawrence had proclaimed them 
to be, particularly when the military forces were 
needed on the western frontier. Furthermore, in 
some of the colonies at this time the religious senti- 
ment was very bitter against anything that savored 
of papacy. The struggles between Protestant and 
Catholic, which had deluged the old world with its 
best blood for years was forcibly reflected in the 
colonies. The distrust of the Acadian was due to his 
religion, nationality, and the highly-colored and sen- 
sational reports put forth by Lawrence to justify his 
outrageous act of deportation. The colonies were 
at times engaged in a war with the French and In- 
dians, and did not draw a very fine distinction between 
a Frenchman and a French " Neutral." At all events 
they did not want the Acadians. Lawrence had been 
shrewd enough to keep his intentions from the gov- 



Historical Sketch of the Acadians. 103 

ernors of the several colonies, and simply dropped his 
cargoes down upon them. 

Three vessels loaded with their cargoes of hmnan 
freight anchored in the Delaware River, just below 
Philadelphia, on the 20th of ISTovember. Governor 
Morris refused to allow them to land, and for a period 
of two months or more they were forced to remain 
on board. Many of them died, and their bodies were 
secretly consigned to the river. They were fed on 
a meager diet of flour and pork, so that when at last 
they were permitted to land, they were so weak and 
famished that out of four hundred and fifty originally 
consigTied to Pennsylvania, two hundred and thirty- 
three had died. They were kindly received by the 
people of Philadelphia, notwithstanding the Gov- 
ernor's seeming harshness. 

Watson, in his " Annals of Philadelphia," says : 
^' The part w^hich came to Philadelphia were pro- 
vided with quarters in a long range of one-story 
wooden houses, built on the north side of Pine 
Street, and extending from Fifth to Sixth Streets. 
. . . These Neutrals remained there several years, 
showing very little disposition to amalgamate and 
settle with our society, or attempting any good for 
themselves. They made a French town in the midst 
of our society, and were content to live spiritless and 
poor. Finally they made themselves burdensome, so 
that the authorities, to awaken them to more sensi- 
bility, determined in the year 1757 to have their chil- 
dren bound out by the Overseers of the Poor, alleging 



104 Historical Slcetch of the Acadians. 

as their reason that the parents had lived long enough 
at the public expense. It soon after occurred that 
they all went off in a body to the banks of the Missis- 
sippi, near 'New Orleans, where their descendants 
may still be found, under the general name of 
Arcadians [Acadians], an easy, gentle, happy, but 
lowly, people/' 

The humane and pious Anthony Benezet was their 
kind friend, and did whatever he could to ameliorate 
their situation. He educated many of their daugh- 
ters, and his charities to them were constant and 
unremitting." A few found homes among some of 
the Huguenot families of the city and state. Gov- 
ernor Morris, of Pennsylvania, was very much con- 
cerned about the presence of the Acadians in the 
Province, and addressed a note to Governor Shirley, 
of Massachusetts, concerning the matter. He says: 
" Two vessels are arrived here with upwards of three 
hundred N^eutral Prench from Nova Scotia, whom 
Governor Lawrence has sent to remain in this Prov- 
ince, and I am at a very great loss to know what to 
do with them. The people here, as there is no mili- 
tary force of any kind, are very uneasy at the 
thought of having a number of enemies scattered 
among the very bowels of the country, who may go 
off from time to time with intelligence, and join their 
countrymen now employed against us, or foment 
some intestine commotion in conjunction with the 
Irish and German Catholics, in this and the neigh- 
boring Province. I therefore must beg your particu- 



Their Deportation and Wanderings. 105 

lar instructions in what manner I may best dispose of 
these people, as I am desirous of doing anything that 
may contribute to His Majesty's service. I have in 
the meantime put a guard, out of the recruiting par- 
ties now in town, on board of each of the vessels, and 
ordered these ISTeutrals to be supplied with provisions, 
which must be at the expense of the Crowm, as I have 
no Provincial money in my hands for this service. I 
have prevailed on Captain Morris, who is recruiting 
here for Colonel Dunbar's regiment, to postpone 
sending off his recruits till I hear from you upon this 
head, which I hope by return of post." 

The Governor of New Jersey was even more pro- 
noimced in his antagonism and fears. He calls them 
" rebels " and " recusants," and is surprised at the 
Government sending them to the colonies, and would 
do all he could to prevent their landing in his State, 
etc. A Philadelphia paper of the time contained the 
following : '^ A few days since three Frenchmen were 
taken up and imprisoned on suspicion of having 
poisoned some wells in the neighborhood. They are 
not yet tried, and it is imagined if they are convicted 
thereof they will have but a few hours to live after 
they are once condemned." The fears of the people 
among whom the Acadians were distributed seem 
ridiculous to us at this time, but they were in the 
midst of a war which was desolating the frontiers of 
Virginia, Pennsylvania and ISFew York, and the Eng- 
lish and colonial arms had not at that time been suc- 
cessful. In their stay of something over two years 



106 Historical Sketch of the Acadians. 

in Philadelphia they never made any attempt to help 
themselves; they begged to be treated as prisoners of 
war, and sent back to Acadia or to France. They 
seem to have been utterly heart-broken and 
despondent. 

In one of their memorials to the Assembly of the 
Province they say : '^ We bless God that it was our 
lot to be sent to Pennsylvania, where our wants have 
been relieved, and we have in every respect been 
treated with Christian benevolence and charity." 
Again: "We humbly pray that you would extend 
your goodness so far as to give us leave to depart 
from hence, or be pleased to send us to our nation, 
or anywhere to join our country-people; but if you 
cannot grant us these favors, we desire that pro- 
visions be made for our subsistence as long as we are 
detained here. If this our humble request should be 
refused, and our wives and children be suffered to 
perish before our eyes, how grievous this will be. 
Had we not better died in our native land ? " 

Their reception in Maryland was about the same 
accorded them in all the other colonies. Governor 
Dulany says that they insisted on being treated as 
prisoners of war, and that they had to be maintained 
at the public expense. " They have eaten us up. 
Political considerations may make this deportation a 
prudent step, for anything I know, and perhaps their 
behavior may have deservedly brought their suffering 
upon them, but it is impossible not to compassionate 
their sufferings." 



Their Deportation and Wanderings, 107 

In Virginia, Governor Dinwiddie received them 
with alarm. Virginia had taken an active part in the 
war; her own leader, Washington, had been defeated, 
and matters were very uncertain on the frontier. 
The prospect was certainly not encouraging, and to 
have quartered among them a lot of French as pris- 
oners of war, or in any other relation, was not pleas- 
ing to the Governor or his people. He managed to 
maintain them until the meeting of the Assembly, 
and then ordered them shipped to England, at 
an expense of eight thousand pounds. They were not 
allowed to leave their ships, and many of them died 
before they set sail for England. A few out of the 
consignment of fifteen hundred for this colony were 
gent north. 

In the Carolinas and Georgia they were probably 
less w^elcome than elsewhere. Governor Glen sent 
fifty or more to Virginia, but Dinwiddie sent these 
farther north. Jones, in his history of Georgia, says : 
" They went scattering all over the country." Some 
of these probably found their way to Louisiana. Of 
the ships containing the consignment of fifteen hun- 
dred for England, some were lost at sea, and it is 
estimated that over four hundred perished. A severe 
storm drove the other ships to San Domingo. A few 
reached England, and were eventually shipped to 
France. 

The fifteen hundred who were shipped to South 
Carolina were given permission to construct boats, in 
which they coasted along the Atlantic coast, in efforts 



108 Historical Sketch of the Acadians. 

to return. After untold hardships, a small number 
succeeded in reaching St. John's, 'New Brunswick. 
Others from Georgia, and those banished from the 
Carolinas, were slowly making their way up the coast, 
when Lawrence, hearing of it, sent a letter to the 
Governors of ISTew York and Massachusetts, ordering 
them to seize the Acadians' ships and destroy them. 
This order was obeyed. Some were seized at the east 
end of Long Island and on the Connecticut coast, and 
others at the entrance to Boston harbor. 

Lawrence, in one of his letters to the Governor of 
Massachusetts says : " As to the conduct of the 
southern colonies in permitting those who were 
removed to coast along from one province to another, 
in order that they might get back to ISTova Scotia, 
nothing is more blamable; and had not the Governors 
of I^ew York and Massachusetts Bay prudently 
stopped them, there is no attempt, however desperate 
and cruel, which might not have been expected from 
persons exasperated as they must have been with the 
treatment they had received." 

Over one thousand landed at various times at 
Charleston, and they were dispersed among the 
several counties, " for the public safety," as it was 
alleged. The Legislature passed a law with reference 
to these exiles similar to that of Pennsylvania. They 
eventually left the Province, with the exception of 
one family, which embraced the Protestant faith, and 
whose descendants are still to be found in Charleston. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE EXILES IN MASSACHUSETTS. 

Most of the Acadians consigned to the ^N'ew Eng- 
land colonies landed at Boston. Here two thousand, 
after considerable delay, were landed from the foul 
crafts in which they had been shipped, and were given 
temporary quarters on Boston Common, and after- 
wards distributed among the surrounding towns. 
They were not permitted to visit any of their kindred 
or friends in adjoining towns, under the penalty of 
ten lashes anci ^ve days^ imprisonment. They were 
subjected to the most rigid surveillance. All the 
crimes committed in the neighborhood were charged 
to the Acadians. 

The Massachusetts records show that until 1766 
vessels continued to bring exiles to Boston, until the 
Legislature absolutely put a stop to it. In the mean- 
time Colonel Winslow quarreled with Lawrence, and 
was no longer willing to countenance his acts of 
cruelty, particularly since he was forced to witness 
at his own home the sufferings of the exiles, and real- 
ized that he was in a measure responsible for their 
pitiable condition. 

All these years soldiers were scouring the forests 
of Acadia for any who might have escaped the several 
deportations, or who might have returned. They 
were hunted like wild beasts. A number of them had 



110 Historical Sketch of the Acadians. 

taken refuge in the islands and bays in and about 
Cape Sable, at the time of the expulsion from 
Annapolis. Here they managed to eke out a miser- 
able existence by hunting and fishing, and the few 
vegetables they were able to raise. They lived in 
constant terror of capture. Lawrence, hearing that 
some had escaped and were taking refuge in this part 
of the Peninsula, ordered Major Peeble, who was 
about to return with some of the N'ew England troops 
to Boston, to stop and seize them and burn their huts. 
One historian says, to the credit of Peeble, that he 
refused to carry out the orders. Another writer says 
that he did obey orders to the extent of burning their 
huts. Be this as it may, it is a fact that in 1Y58 this 
remnant at Cape Sable petitioned the " Honorable 
Council at Boston," asking to be permitted to remain 
where they were, under their protection; or if that 
could not be granted, they asked to be taken to ]^ew 
England, and they would pay taxes and help main- 
tain the war against France. They numbered forty 
families, or about one hundred and fifty persons all 
told. " Dear sirs," they petitioned, " do for us what 
lies in your power to settle us here, and we will be 
your faithful subjects until death." A year later 
Lawrence sent an armed vessel to Cape Sable. One 
hundred and fifty of the refugees were made pris- 
oners, their houses were burned, and they were taken 
to Halifax and imprisoned on an island in the harbor 
which only a few years before had been the scene of 



Their Deportation and Wanderings. Ill 

Lawrence's brutality to seventy of the inhabitants of 
Minas. 

Death, the friend of the Acadian, as of the poor, 
claimed his share of these. The few who survived 
were sent to England. England herself complained 
of the shipment, and sent them to France, where 
to-day their descendants " inhabit two communes, 
wherein the peaceful habitudes and rustic peculiari- 
ties of their race are still recognizable among the 
verdant oases which dot the moorlands of Gascony in 
France." 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE EETUKI^ OF THE EXILES. 

Peace having been declared (1763) between the 
mother countries, the Acadian refugees started on 
their weary march back to I^ew Brunswick and I^ova 
Scotia. Over eight hundred left Boston at one time^ 
tramping in all kinds of weather through the forests 
of Maine, along the north shore of the Bay of Fundy, 
in 'New Brunswick, up to the Isthmus of Shediac, 
north of the Basin of Minas. Here they halted, for, 
peering across the Basin, they beheld another people 
in possession of their lands. For months and years 
they had wended their toilsome way, weary, hungry 
and shelterless, but ever with the fond hope of regain- 
ing their native land. Some halted in the southern 
part of New Brunswick, and began erecting huts; 
others went into the northern part of the Province 
and settled at Madawaska; still others continued their 
weary way across the isthmus to Fort Beausejour 
(now JSTew Cumberland), around the shores of Minas, 
Piziquid and Grand-Pre. 

On through what had been the village of Grand- 
Pre, through the Comwallis valley, down the An- 
napolis valley to Annapolis, down to the shores of 
St. Mary's Bay, went fifty or sixty poor wretches, the 
remnant of a once happy and contented people. 
What a flood of recollections must have crowded upon 



Historical Shetcli of the Acadians. 113 

them as they stood gazing on the ruins of their once 
happy homes ! What emotions of joy, mingled with 
anguish and despair! — the land of their birth, the 
home of their childhood ! The orchards, the willows 
and the poplars were still standing, as they are to-day, 
but the homes were gone and their farms were in the 
possession of others. 

" Still stands the forest primeval ; but under the shade of its 
branches 
Dwells another race, with other customs and language." 

The willows and orchards — these same old land- 
marks — ^were all that whispered a welcome to the 
poor exiles, whose requiem they had sung only eight 
years before. They stood as the proud monuments 
of the Acadian farmer's planting and care; — ^little 
changed, excepting that they, too, had grown riper 
in years, broken with the storms of war and winter. 
Some were dead and decaying, each telling its tale 
of the sad scenes enacted in this land of sunshine and 
plenty. 

How changed the scene ! Here the ruins of their 
church, sacred to them through the observance of the 
rites of their religion, — the sacrament, the christen- 
ing of their babes, and the solemnization of their mar- 
riage vows. There the old well that often quenched 
alike the thirst of priest and flock. On aU. sides 
nothing but destruction and desolation greeted them. 
Was this their beloved Acadia ? 

The English inhabitants of this section looked on 
them with a species of horror. The children were 



114 Historical SJcetch of the Acadians. 

frightened bj them, the men and women were 
annoyed as by a threatening specter from the grave ; 
everybody was angry with them, and the poor 
wretches dragged themselves from village to village, 
worried and worn out by fatigue, cold, hunger and 
despair, that grew at every halting-place, till at last 
they reached the deserted shore of St. Mary's Bay, a 
barren and desolate stretch of country on the north- 
west coast of 'NoYSi Scotia. Here, under necessity, 
these unfortunate outcasts raised log huts; took to 
fishing and hunting; began to clear the land, and 
soon, out of the felled trees, some roughly-built 
houses were put up. Here their offspring, down 
through many generations, still live. 

Although the treaty of peace between England 
and France was signed in 1763, and the Acadians 
were working their way back to Canada and E'ova 
Scotia, it is a fact that as late as 1765 Fort Edward 
still held Acadian prisoners to the number of four 
hundred. Many of these had been captured in the 
mountains, islands and other secluded spots where 
they had taken refuge. They were at last set free, 
and they, with the returning wanderers, were allowed 
to take up land and settle. Indeed, their supplanters 
found that their services would be valuable, as the 
Acadians knew more about building and maintaining 
dykes than did the English. The latter sent a 
memorial to Governor Wilmot stating that " the 
French Acadians who have hitherto been stationed 
in this country have been of great use as laborers in 



Their Deportation and Wanderings. 115 

assisting in the carrying on of our business in agricul- 
ture and improvement in general, but particularly in 
repairing and making dykes, a work which they are 
accustomed to and experienced in; and we find that 
without their further assistance many of us cannot 
continue our improvements, nor plow, nor sow the 
lands, nor finish the dyking still required to secure the 
lands from the salt water; and being convinced from 
experience that unless those dyke lands are enclosed 
we cannot with certainty raise bread for our subsist- 
ence." The descendants of those who returned are 
still found in the villages of St. Mary's, Port Acadia, 
Meteghan, Church Point, and other towns in this part 
of the peninsula. 

When the expatriation took place at Annapolis 
many escaped and took refuge in the mountain and 
lake region in and about the present city of Yar- 
mouth. P. H. Smith, in his " Acadia, A Lost Chap- 
ter in American History," thus describes this section, 
of ISTova Scotia : " The scenery of Argyl Bay is 
extremely beautiful of its kind, — cottages embowered 
in the forests of fir and spruce, and the masts of the 
small fishing vessels peeping up from every little 
cove, with innumerable islands and peninsulas enclos- 
ing the blue sea in every direction; while beyond, and 
amid the scenery of the Tusket Lakes, are the blue 
mountains, the paradise of moose and trout." 

Among these narrow passes hundreds of the 
Acadians took refuge during the persecutions of 
1755-60, and several settlements were formed by 



116 Historical ShetcJi of the Acadians. 

them here. The remains of a flourishing one existed 
np to a recent period at the head of Chegogin marsh, 
and the apple-trees, stone walls and cellars on the 
Chebogue Kiver are said to be relics of the same 
people. 

But even the solitude and seclusion of this spot did 
not save them from the pursuit of their enemies. A 
British frigate was sent down to hunt them out. 
A small boat was despatched to the mouth of the 
Tusket Biver, and, guided by native pilots, ascended 
the stream and its chain of lakes to invest this asylum. 
The invaders had advanced to within a mile of the 
village, and were arrived at a narrow place where the 
river is twenty to thirty yards in width. Here the 
pass is overarched by the branches of the somber 
pine. An ambuscade had been formed by the fugi- 
tives, and the unsuspecting crew, surprised under the 
very muzzles of their assailants' guns, received a fatal 
discharge of musketry, which destroyed the entire 
party. 

This sanguinary triumph only served to render 
the fate of the Acadians more certain, and they were 
at last compelled to flee. Some escaped to the woods 
and afliliated with the Indians, never afterward 
returning to the haunts or the habits of the white 
man; but the greater part were captured and trans- 
ported with their families to England. 

Thirty years after the expatriation, families, sweet- 
hearts and lovers were still striving to be reunited. 
Advertisements were seen in the then limited num- 



Their Deportation and Wanderings. 117 

ber of publications of the country asking for the 
missing ones, or endeavoring to make known to them 
that the advertiser was alive. 

Along the shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in 
the northern part of New Brunswick, in the northern 
part of Maine, and in northern Vermont, may the 
descendants of the Acadians be found. In 1764 the 
total number remaining in the Province of N^ova 
Scotia was about fifteen hundred, besides about three 
hundred on Prince Edward Island. About half of 
the latter afterwards went to the West Indies, but 
the climate was unsuited to them, and most of them 
died. 

. Between the towns of Dorchester and Moneton, in 
the beautiful and picturesque valley of theMemram- 
cook, we find a people bearing unmistakable evidence 
of Acadian origin. They are the descendants of the 
French l!^eutrals, as their dialect and names indicate. 
The Le Blancs, Melansons, Le Sours and others are 
among the earliest names found in the records of this 
people. After the first deportation, many of those 
who escaped from Lawrence and his soldiery sought 
refuge in the wilds of 'New Brunswick. Up the St. 
John they pushed their way as far as the present city 
of Fredericton. Here they began to clear the forests 
and found homes anew. Soon the little settlement 
of St. Anne began to grow, and for seventeen years 
or more its inhabitants, who once dwelt by the Basin 
of Minas, were prosperous, happy and unmolested. 

But another calamity was to befall them. Their 



118 Historical Shetch of the Acadians. 

persecutions had ceased for years, and apparently tlie 
settlers of St. Anne's were far enough away from the 
scenes of strife and conflict in which the colonists and 
the mother country were engaged to be perfectly 
secure. Such was not the case. The Revolution 
being over, thousands of loyalists of the colonies 
found themselves fugitives from their homes, exiles 
as the Acadians had been. In 1784 many of these 
loyalists found the rich and fertile spot at St. Anne, 
drove the Acadians out, took possession of their 
houses and lands, and they again became exiles and 
wanderers. St. Anne became Fredericton, and again 
into the depths of the forest primeval plunged the 
children of Acadia. 

In the great forests of northern 'New Brunswick 
and northeastern Maine, on the Madawaska and St. 
John Rivers, they began again to build homes, — 
homes in which their descendants now rest securely, 
and from which they can never be driven, except 
through due process of law. Here for over a century, 
in almost perfect isolation from the rest of the world, 
for many years almost unknown to the people of 
Maine, within whose boundaries many of them had 
settled, have dwelt the descendants of the exiles who 
made their way up along the coast from the CaroHnas 
and Virginia. 

There still remained after the deportation of 1755, 
on the River St. John, the Gulf shores, and on Prince 
Edward Island, some ten thousand Acadians. About 
fifteen hundred of these went to Quebec by the St. 



Their Deportation and Wanderings. Hi) 

Lawrence between 1756 and 1758; others to the num- 
ber of some hundreds ascended the St. John Kiver, 
in 1759 and 1760, and settled in the district of Three 
Rivers, where their descendants are to be found to- 
day. Man}' of these travelers died before reaching 
their destination. There remained after these two 
migrations about eight thousand, of whom at least 
fiftj-five hundred found a refuge on Prince Edward 
Island. This number was somewhat increased by 
fugitives from ^N'ova Scotia. 

After the capture of Louisbourg by Boscawain, 
these people, to the number of between three and 
four thousand, were deported. Some were sent to 
England, where half of them died from various 
causes; others were left in France, at St. Malo, 
Boulogne, and other ports; some were sent to the 
Island of Jersey; while a part never reached Europe, 
as the vessels on which they were embarked were 
unseaworthy, and went to the bottom with all their 
precious human freight. 

Prior to the peace of 1763 the Acadians began to 
work their way back from the southern colonies, as 
we have previously seen, to Acadia, — that at least 
being their objective point. Grand-Pre and the 
Minas region were already in the possession of Eng- 
lish settlers, and as a matter of fact but one body of 
all those who started from the various places of exile 
ever reached the peninsula of Acadia or ^ova Scotia, 
and these were the founders of the settlements at 
Cape Sable and St. Mary's Bay. 



120 Historical Sketch of the Acadians. 

As previously stated, this band of the exiles sailed 
back from South Carolina in two old vessels, and 
landed at the mouth of the River St. John. From 
this place they made their way on foot along the 
shore of the Bay of Fundy, around the Basin of 
Minas, only to find their lands in the possession of 
others. They were thus forced again to take up their 
weary march eastward, and finally found a resting- 
place on the barren shores of the east end of the 
peninsula. 

The " Biver St. John,'' by which name the settle- 
ment at its mouth was known in early days, was the 
oldest of all the Acadian settlements, but by no 
means the most thriving. Indeed, it was so small and 
insignificant as to escape for several years the ravages 
of the English and colonial soldiery. The ancient 
Seigneurie of Jemseg, or Jemsek, was forty leagues 
up the river. It had been conceded to the Damour 
family, who were already settled there in 1686. In 
1693 there were twenty-one inhabitants; in 1698, 
fifty; in 1739, one hundred and sixteen. At the 
mouth of the St. John some of Charnisay's colonists 
were found, protected by a small'fort; this settlement 
was broken up at the time of the Acadian dispersion. 

To the settlement on the St. John, near Grand 
Lake, came the fugitives from the various hiding- 
places in the ISTortheast, and some from South Caro- 
lina; at one time there were between twelve and 
fourteen hundred Acadians gathered at this place. 
Food became scarce, and the people were forced 



Their Deportation and Wanderings. 121 

t© migrate. A large number went to Quebec; some 
continued on up the river to Three Rivera; others 
became pirates and harassed British commerce. In 
1758 those who remained were surprised by a party 
under Monckton and driven up the river. 

The larger part of those who remained in ISTew 
Brunswick went up the River St. John, and a short 
distance above the site of Fredericton founded the 
village of St. Anne. Early in 1759 this village was 
attacked by some 'New England Rangers under 
Hazen; six women and children were killed, twenty- 
three prisoners were taken, and the village was 
burned. 

Perley, a local historian, states that in 1762 his 
grandfather, with an exploring party, found the 
blackened ruins of their buildings. In 1761 Gov- 
ernor Bulkley reported that there were forty 
Acadians at this place who had not made submission. 
They were ordered to leave, without even gathering 
their crops. Again, in 1766, Bulkley ordered the 
people in the vicinity, except six families, to be chosen 
by the priest. Father Bailly, to remove. 

A letter written by this Father Bailly from 
Ekouipahan to Bishop Briand, June 20th, 1766, says: 
" There are eleven Acadian families on the outskirts 
of the village, the same ones whom your Lordship 
kindly confirmed at St. Anne. The Acadians who 
have remained long among the English are still very 
fervent; their only fault is a great wrongheadedness, 
either on the subject of remaining each in his own 



122 Historical Sketch of the Acadians, 

district and being unwilling to unite with tlie rest, or 
in the matter of land, which they want to hold under 
old-time conditions, responsible to the King alone. 
This is the reproach of the English, who detest them. 
The Government is not willing to give them land on 
this condition, yet exacts from them an oath of fidel- 
ity. It is a hard task to attend to them, for they live 
in districts apart from one another ; — during the sum- 
mer on the seashore fishing, and in the winter in the 
woods hunting." 

Until the close of the Revolution E'ew Brunswick 
had few inhabitants except the Acadians and Indians. 
The few English in the Province were on the sea- 
coast, and the settlements were small. At the close 
of the Revolution thousands of Tories left the States 
with the English troops, and found homes in the 
various colonies of the North. Lands were given 
them by the English Government in the Province of 
'New Brunswick, which included land already occu- 
pied by the refugee Acadians. The loyalists found 
the Acadians in possession, but they ordered them to 
"move on.'' Casgrain says: "The establishment at 
the mouth of the St. John became a living hell for 
the Acadians who held to their lands. Some of them 
went away to join their dispossessed brethren who 
had founded the Madawaska colony." 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE MADAWASKA SETTLEMENT. 

The settlement of the valley of the upper St. 
John, which some authorities have placed as early as 
1756, is a matter of uncertainty as to date, the estab- 
lishment of a colony at Madawaska at that early 
period being only a matter of Acadian tradition. 
There is no doubt, however, about the immigration 
to that point thirty years later, when the loyalists 
forced them out of the Fredericton region. Twenty 
families in 1784 made their way up the St. John in 
boats, carrying their effects around the Grand Falls, 
and " thirty leagues from any habitation, axe in hand, 
opened up the plains of Madawaska.'' 

The Acadians found here two Canadians keeping 
a trading house. These two men were Pierre Lizotte 
and Pierre Duperre, who had located in this section 
in 1783. The valley of the upper St. John, while 
possibly not occupied before lizotte's time, was 
known to the French long before. Champlain in 
1612 and Francklin in 1686 both indicate it on their 
maps, the latter applying the word " Madawaska " to 
Lake Temisquata. The name is from the Indian 
word Med-a-wes-kek, signifying " porcupine place," 
the French pronouncing it Madoueska, and the Eng- 
lish changing it to its present pronunciation. 

There is no doubt that the character of the coun- 



124 Historical Sketch of the Acadians. 

try was known to the Acadian exiles before they set- 
tled there, and that they did not go into the wilder- 
ness in ignorance of where they were finally to settle. 
The Acadian hunter and trapper, the Canadian In- 
dians, and the French Canadian of the lower St. Law- 
rence, were familiar with the country south of the 
St. Lawrence for many miles. They knew of the 
settlement at St. Anne's, had visited it, and had also 
visited those south as far as the mouth of the St. John 
River; in fact, this river was the natural highway 
between Canada and the coast settlements of the 
French. 

Madawaska was then a promised land to these 
wanderers. M.T. Deane, one of the American Com- 
missioners to settle the boundary disputes between 
Maine and 'New Brunswick, and who, with Mr. 
Davies, the other Commissioner, traveled through 
this region in 1828, says: " The Acadians, or neutral 
French, whose ancestors had been settled at the head 
of the Bay of Fundy, or in that country now called 
]!^ova Scotia, and had been driven from thence and 
had established themselves at St. Anne's, now Fred- 
ericton, and in that region, being disturbed by the in- 
troduction of the refugees and the acts of the Gov- 
ernor of JSTew Brunswick, which dispossessed them of 
their farms, fled up the St. John in search of places of 
residence out of the reach of British laws and oppres- 
sion. Twenty or more families moved, and settled 
themselves on the St. John, below the trading station, 
which Pierre Duperre had made a few years before. 



Their Deportation and Wanderings. 125 

Here they continued in unmolested enjoyment of 
their property for some years/' 

We may also here quote from Mr. Davies, the 
other Commissioner : ^' It may be proper to advert to 
the situation of a colony of French settlers which 
planted itself within our territory, principally, if not 
entirely, since the acknowledgment of and establish- 
ment of the bounds of Massachusetts by the treaty of 
1783. Situated near the borders of the American 
territory, they appear to have preserved their neutral 
character, and to have remained as a people by them- 
selves, so far as they might be permitted by their 
position toward the Province of 'New Brunswick. 
Without having any sympathy with the system estab- 
lished in that govermnent, they have not been in con- 
dition to oppose the exercise of any power that might 
be exerted over them.'' 

In 1792 twenty-four heads of families, acting for 
thirty-one families, the total number in the settle- 
ment, petitioned the Archbishop of Quebec, asking 
permission to build a church. The petition was drawn 
up by Father Paquette, for the people themselves 
could neither read nor write. He indicated in the 
margin, beside each name, the nationality of the 
signers, about one-half of whom were Canadian 
French. The purely Acadian names are descendants 
of the original families of 1671. The petition was 
granted, and the church was erected on the north side 
of the St. John, and dedicated to St. Basil. From 
Mr. Dean's account we gather something of the life 



126 Historical Sketch of the Acadians. 

and character of these people, who had not changed 
much during all the period of their vicissitudes. 

'' A few families established themselves in 1807 a 
few miles above the mouth of the Madawaska River. 
They all lived in mutual good-fellowship, recognizing 
and practicing the duties of morality and religion, 
and governed solely by the laws of honor and com- 
mon-sense. They continued to live in this manner to 
as late a period as 1818. The British had made no 
grant higher up the St. John than those mentioned 
above, unless the transportation of the mail through 
to Canada and the granting of a commission to Pierre 
Duperre in 1798 as captain of militia, there being no 
military organization until twenty-eight years after- 
wards, may be called acts of jurisdiction. . . . About 
this time [1790] another body of the descendants of 
the Acadians, or neutral French, who had sought 
refuge on the Kennebecasis River, were there dis- 
turbed in their possession, and in a like manner 
sought a refuge with their countrymen at Mada- 
waska. After having resided at Madawaska some 
years they were induced, as their countrymen had 
been, to receive from the Governor of I^ew Bruns- 
wick grants of the land they had taken into pos- 
session." 

Mr. Davies says : " Little occasion could be pre- 
sented for the employment of criminal process among 
the relics of a primitive population represented as of 
a mild, industrious, frugal and pious character, desir- 
ous of finding a refuge under the patriarchal and 



Their Deportation and Wanderings. 137 

spiritual power of religion. It has been the custom 
for them to settle their civil affairs of every descrip- 
tion, including their accidental disputes and differ- 
ences, by the aid of one or two arbitrators or umpires 
associated with the Catholic priest, who is commonly 
a missionary from Canada." 

The first American settlement in this extreme 
northeastern point of Maine was in 1817, and the 
first knowledge the authorities of Maine seem to have 
had of the long-existing Acadian settlements was 
about this time. The American census of 1820 for 
the district showed a population of over eleven hun- 
dred. There are fifty-five distinct family names, and 
but two of them American or English. 

The boundary dispute between Maine and l^ew 
Brunswick was settled by the treaty of 1843, the line 
passing through the middle of the St. John River, 
thus cutting the Madawaska settlement in two. In 
all the disputes over the boundary the Acadians seem 
to have been entirely indifferent; they had, of course, 
received grants from the British authorities of the 
land which they had long occupied. They could not 
be induced to take an active part in the efforts of the 
Americans to form local governing bodies; town 
meetings, the elixir of 'New England political life, 
had no fascination for the peasant of the Madawaska 
settlement. Like their ancestors of Acadia, they sim- 
ply desired to be left alone. They had no desire to 
become an appendage to the American nation; their 
experience with the people of the adjoining settle- 



128 Historical Sketch of the Acadians. 

ments was not such as to invite them to participate 
in their strenuous life. In fact, the Maine Yankee 
was too swift and pushing for them. When the dis- 
pute was settled, and those south of the St. John 
became citizens of the United States, thej accepted 
the fact, and proceeded on the even tenor of their 
way. 

Jackson, in his geological report for the year 1836, 
covers the state of society and education, at that 
period, and says : '^^ The whole tract between the 
Madawaska and this line [boundary] is settled by 
Acadians, and is known under the name of the Mada- 
waska settlement. This district was incorporated as 
a town by the State of Maine, but difficulties having 
ensued as to the right of jurisdiction, it was agreed 
to leave the place in statu quo until the claims of the 
two countries should be adjusted, an injunction being 
placed, by mutual agreement, against cutting timber 
upon the disputed territory. . . . The population 
of the Madawaska settlement is estimated at three 
thousand souls, nine hundred of whom live above the 
Little Falls. Most of the settlers are descendants of 
the French neutrals, who were driven by British vio- 
lence from their homes in E'ova Scotia. These peo- 
ple first established themselves above Fredericton, 
and subsequently removed above the Grand Falls and 
effected a settlement. The Acadians are a very pecu- 
liar people, remarkable for the simplicity of their 
manners and their fidelity to their employers. 
Although they are said to be ' sharp at a bargain,' 



Their Deportation and Wanderings. 129 

they are remarkably honest, industrious and respect- 
ful, and are polite and hospitable to each other and to 
strangers. 

'' It is curious to observe how perfectly they have 
retained all their French peculiarities. The forms of 
their houses, the decorations of their apartments, 
their dress, modes of cookery, etc., are exactly as 
they were originally in the land of their ancestors. 
They speak a kind of patois, or corrupted French, but 
perfectly understand the modern language as spoken 
in Paris. But few persons can be found who under- 
stand or speak English, and these are such as from 
the necessities of trade have learned a few words of 
the language. I^one of the women or children either 
understand or speak English. The Acadians are a 
cheerful, contented and happy people, social in their 
intercourse, and they never pass each other without 
a kind salutation. While they thus retain all the 
marked characteristics of the French peasantry, it is 
curious that they appear to know but little respecting 
the country from which they originated, and but few 
of them have the least idea of its geographical situa- 
tion. Thus we were asked, when we spoke of France, 
if it were not separated from England by a river, or 
if it was near the coast of ^ova Scotia; and one of 
them inquired if Bethlehem, where Christ was born, 
was not a town in France ? Since they have no 
schools, and their knowledge is but traditional, it is 
not surprising that they should remain ignorant of 
geography and history. I can account for their 



130 Historical Sketch of the Acadians. 

understanding the pure French language by the cir- 
cumstance that they are supplied with Catholic 
priests from the mother country, who, of course, 
speak to them in that tongue. Those who visit Mada- 
waska must remember that no money passes current 
there but silver, for the people do not know how to 
read, and will not take bank-notes, for they have often 
been imposed upon, since they are unable to distin- 
guish between a five-dollar, a five-pound and a five- 
shilling note. As there are no taverns in this settle- 
ment every family the traveler calls on will furnish 
accommodations, for which they expect a reasonable 
compensation; and he will always be sure of kind 
treatment, which is beyond price. I have been thus 
particular in speaking of the Acadian settlers of 
Madawaska, because little is generally known of their 
manners or customs, many people having the idea 
that they are semi-savages, because, like the aborigi- 
nal inhabitants, they live principally by hunting.'' 

In 1843, the year of the Ashburton treaty, which 
settled the boundary dispute, some of the inhabitants 
of this section, Americans beyond all doubt, wrote 
thus to Grovernor Kavanagh : " It is well known to 
you that the settlements on the American side of the 
St. John extend on the margin of the river continu- 
ously from Fort Kent to the easterly line of the 
State, a distance of nearly sixty miles, and from the 
same point westwardly, with some interruptions, to 
Little Black River, at its intersection with the St. 
John, a distance of thirty miles more. The whole 



Their Deportation and Wanderings. 131 

settlement is separated from the other settlements 
of the State of Maine by an unbroken forest of from 
thirty to sixty miles in breadth. It is composed of 
Acadian and Canadian French, a few Irishmen and 
provincial Englishmen, and here and there an Ameri- 
can. The people are generally unacquainted with our 
laws and customs, unable to read or write, and but 
fcAv understand our language. Their business inter- 
course has been wholly with 'New Brunswick and 
Canada. They have lived under British laws, and 
are too ignorant to be at present capable of self- 
government.'' 

Rev. Charles W. Collins, Chancellor of the Roman 
Catholic Diocese of Portland, Maine, sums up the 
Acadian situation so far as Madawaska and its settle- 
ments are concerned, in the following language: 
^^ If an indictment is to be formulated against the 
social and educational backwardness of this part of 
the State, in justice it ought not to retroact beyond 
1850. During the past half century the progress of 
Madawaska has been steady, conservative and (con- 
sidering the many obstacles) creditable to its people. 
This knot of settlements is situated in the extreme 
north, three hundred miles from the seaboard, totally 
removed from American railroads, in a remote part 
of a relatively unprosperous State. It has had the 
further disadvantage of being cut in twain and half- 
allotted to Canada. Racially and territorially it is 
to-day more Canadian than American, yet for inter- 
nal improvements it has had to look to a common- 



132 Historical Sketch of the Acadians. 

wealth unable to help it much. It is almost exclu- 
sively a farming country; its main source of income 
is the sale of agricultural products. The soil, though 
fertile, is by no means to be compared with that of 
'NoYa Scotia or the great Aroostook valley. In order 
to sell his products the Madawaska farmer has been 
compelled to convey them long miles by wagon, or 
dispose of them at a ruinous rate to itinerant traders. 
The agricultural development of other parts of the 
State has worked him nothing but harm. The land 
itself has been overworked, and fertilizers are beyond 
his purse. In bad years he has been driven to the 
money-lender, and this temporary expedient, as 
always, has become a widely-prevailing condition, 
sapping industry and driving off the energetic. 
Scores, nay hundreds, of these farms are loaded with 
the mortgage incubus, and held in precarious tenure. 
This state of things, though it has not resulted in 
starvation, has held the settlers in an ever-tightening 
grip of poverty. The increase of population, also, 
has its disadvantages. The people of the younger 
generation have taken up new concessions in the 
interior, only to repeat the sorrowful experience of 
their fathers. 

" Lumbering has, at certain seasons of the year, 
given employment to a number of the inhabitants, 
but has worked great harm to the farming industry. 
All manufactured goods are luxuries, on account of 
the cost of carriage. Across the river is a community 
almost in the same condition. Moreover, the Acadian 



Their Deportaiioii and Wanderings. 133 

has not the American energy and progressiveness, 
but even if he had, we could not argue much more 
for him than has been the result in the rural districts 
in other parts of the State. In spite of obstacles the 
most discouraging, the Madawaska country during 
the past fifty years has accomplished much. There 
are now in the district commonly called Madawaska, 
which includes all the country between Van Buren 
and Saint Francis, and some considerable inland set- 
tlements, nine churches, eight of these with resident 
clergymen, who also attend many missions without 
churches. There is a college at Van Buren, con- 
ducted by the Marist fathers, with a corps of nine 
professors and one hundred students. In three 
places — Van Buren, Frenchville and Wallagras — 
are religious schools under charge of Good Shepherd, 
Rosary and Franciscan Sisters.'' 



CHAPTER XX. 

BAYOU TECHE SETTLEMEI^T. 

The Acadians who went from Philadelphia to 
Louisiana settled on the Bayou Teche. " West of 
this stream," says Cable, ^^ lies a beautiful undulating 
prairie, some thirty-nine hundred square miles in 
extent, dotted with artificial homestead groves, with 
fields of sugar-cane, cotton and corn, and with herds 
of ponies and keen horned cattle feeding on its short, 
nutritious turf. Their herdsmen speak an ancient 
patois, and have the blue eyes and light brown hair 
of northern France. But not yet have we found the 
Creoles. The Creoles smile and sometimes even 
frown at these : these are the children of those famed 
ISTova Scotian exiles whose banishment from their 
homes by the British in arms in 1755 has so often 
been celebrated in romance ; they still bear the name 
of Acadians. They are found not only on the west- 
ern side of the Teche, but in all this French-speaking 
region of Louisiana. But these vast prairies of 
Attakapas and Opelousas are peculiarly theirs, and 
here they largely outnumber that haughtier Louisian- 
ian who endeavors to withhold as well from him as 
from the American the proud appellation of Creole." 

" Their [the Acadians'] descendants," says Alcee 
Fortier, " are to be found in every parish of lower 
Louisiana. They form an important and useful part 



Historical Sketch of the, Acadians. 135 

of our population. Although a simple farming peo- 
ple, they have had some men of eminence in the 
State, and their lot has been by no means miserable.'' 
Judge Joseph A. Breaux, of the Supreme Court of 
Louisiana, who is very much interested in the Aca- 
dians, in a letter to the author, remarks that "' the 
Acadians in the South have not entirely preserved 
the simplicity which marked the original Acadian and 
his descendants in the E^ortheast. The varied con- 
tacts have, to some extent, lost him his identity as an 
Acadian. He is loyal as a citizen, and usually a fairly 
good neighbor. Many of them are poor, and our 
school system, efficient enough in the cities, is want- 
ing in the country. The young men (nearly all) 
speak the English, and know very little of the Aca- 
dians. They (many of them) avoid all reference to 
Acadians, and would be pleased to be known exclu- 
sively as Americans, forgetting that the good citizen- 
ship of our country is made up of the best elements 
of all nationalities." 

It is not to be understood that all the Acadians of 
Louisiana are the descendants of those who left Phila- 
delphia in 1757. It is possible that many of the 
exiles sent to Georgia and the Carolinas reached 
Louisiana in 1756, and possibly in the latter part of 
1755. Here as elsewhere they seem to have pre- 
served few if any actual records of their migration, 
and they have largely lost all interest in the romantic 
but sad history of their ancestors. They seem to be 
devoid of interest in their traditional history, or loth 



136 Historical Sketch of the Acadians. 

to disclose it to strangers. Only in the Madawaska 
region of Maine and 'New Brunswick, at St. Mary's 
Bay and the surrounding settlements in E^ova Scotia, 
and in the Acadian settlements of Louisiana, has the 
descendant of the exiles alone preserved his identity. 
In these widely-separated districts, while the contact 
has been different, he has clung to his mother tongue 
with all the tenacity of the Pennsylvania German, 
who, in the midst of an English-speaking people for 
nearly two centuries, still in his home uses his 
'^ mutter spreche.'' 

For years these remnants of the exiles were prac- 
tically isolated from all influences which lead to the 
amalgamation of distinct races, and as a matter of 
fact there is as yet very little mixed blood among 
them. In Louisiana, while the exiles were well 
receive by their countrymen, there was yet no dispo- 
sition on the part of the wealthy and aristocratic 
planter to more than tolerate his less fortunate 
brother. The Creole, proud, indolent, pleasure-lov- 
ing, and withal dominant and domineering, looked 
upon the Acadians as inferiors, and rarely if ever 
intermarried with them. The American element, 
which appeared many years after the Acadian, and 
was of that doubtful character which may be called 
a cross between a riverman and a buccaneer, was not 
at all congenial to the simple peasantry of the Aca- 
dian settlements. These circumstances preserved the 
purity of the Acadian blood in the South, while in 
southeastern Nova Scotia race and religious feeling 



Their Deportation and Wanderings. 137 

and prejudices have, with few exceptions, kept the 
strain pure. 

In the Madawaska district, whatever of mixture 
there is comes through intermarriage with French 
Canadians. Those who went to Canada, and they 
compose the great majority of those who remained 
on the American continent, became swallowed up in 
the great mass of the French population and lost their 
identity entirely. It has been isolation only which 
has preserved to any body of these people their dis- 
tinctive appellation of " Acadian," and only in 
Louisiana are their descendants known by the name, 
and there more commonly " Cadian " or " Cajan." 



CHAPTEE XXI. 

THE KEAL EVANGELINE. 

'Not the least interesting feature in the story of 
Evangeline and her people is that of the original of 
the character. However much the exigencies of 
poetry may have caused a divergence from the facts 
in producing a harmonious whole, the tradition pre- 
served in one of the exile families, of the wanderings 
and the peculiarly sad fate of a young Acadian girl, 
evidently forms the basis of Longfellow's poem. 

The Mouton family of Louisiana, descended from 
the Acadian exiles, has long preserved as part of its 
family inheritance the sad story of Emmeline La- 
biche, the original Evangeline. 

Senator Mouton, of Louisiana, who was a personal 
friend of Longfellow, gave to the poet the story of 
the young girl who was adopted into his family in 
the village of St. Gabriel in the old Acadian- days, and 
after the dispersion, and in all their wanderings, 
found her home with the family in its exile. It is 
told in the words of an ancestor who was among 
those deported, and is substantially as follows : 

^^ Emmeline Labiche was an orphan girl of Acadia, 
whose parents died when she was yet a child, and who 
was taken into our family and adopted. 

" She was sweet-tempered and loving, and grew to 
womanhood with all the attractions of her sex. Al- 



Their Deportation and Wanderings. 139 

though not a beauty in the sense usually given to the 
word, she was looked upon as the handsomest girl in 
St. Gabriel. . . . Emmeline had just completed her 
sixteenth year, and was on the eve of marrying a de- 
serving, laborious and well-to-do man of St. Gabriel, 
named Louis Arsenaux. Their mutual love dated 
back to their earliest years, and was concealed from 
no one. . . . Their banns had been published in the 
village church, the nuptial day was fixed . . . when 
the barbarous scatterment of our colony took place. 
Our oppressors had driven us toward the seashore 
where their ships rode at anchor, and Louis, resisting 
with rage and despair, was wounded by them. 

" Emmeline witnessed the whole scene. . . . Tear- 
less and speechless she stood fixed to the spot. When 
the white sails Vanished in the distance . . . she 
clasped me in her arms and in an agony of grief 
sobbed piteously. By degrees the violence of her 
gTief subsided, but the sadness of her countenance be- 
tokened the sorrow that preyed upon her heart. 

" Henceforward she lived a quiet and retired life, 
mingling no more with her companions, and taking 
no part in their amusements. The remembrance of 
her lost love remained enshrined in her heart. 

" Thus she lived in our midst, always sweet-tem- 
pered, with such sadness depicted on her countenance 
and with smiles so sorrowful that we had come to look 
on her not as of this earth, but rather as our guardian 
angel. Thus it was that we called her no longer Em- 
meline, but ^ Evangeline,' or ' God's little angel.' . . . 



140 Historical Shetch of the Acadians. 

" Emmeliiie had been exiled to Maryland with ns. 
She followed me in my long overland journey from 
Maryland to Louisiana. 

^'When we reached the Teche country at the Poste 
de Attakapas we found the whole population congre- 
gated to welcome us. When we landed from the 
boat Emmeline w^alked by my side. . . . Suddenly, 
as if fascinated by a vision, she stopped, and then, the 
silvery tones of her voice vibrating with joy, she 
cried : ' Mother ! mother ! it is he. It is Louis ! ' and 
she pointed to the tall figure of a man standing be- 
neath an oak. It was Louis Arsenaux. . . . She 
flew to his side, crying out in an ecstasy of joy and 
love. He turned ashy pale, and hung his head with- 
out uttering a word. ^ Louis,' she said, ' why do you 
turn your eyes away? I am still your Emmeline, 
your betrothed ! ' 

" With quivering lips and trembling voice he an- 
swered : ' Emmeline, do not speak so kindly to me. 
I am unworthy of you. I can love you no longer. I 
have pledged my faith to another. Tear from your 
heart the remembrance of the past and forgive me.' 
Then he wheeled away and disappeared in the forest. 

" A pallor overspread her countenance, and her 
eyes assumed a vacant stare. . . . 

^' She followed me like a child without resistance. 
I clasped her in my arms and wept bitterly. ' Em- 
meline, my dear, be comforted. There may yet be 
happiness in store for you.' ^ Emmeline, Emmeline,' 
she muttered to herself, as if to recall that name. 



Their Deportation and Wanderings. 141 

and tlien: ^ Who are you?' She turned away, her 
mind unhinged. . . . 

'' Emmeline never recovered her reason, and a 
deep melancholy ever possessed her. Her beautiful 
countenance was lighted by a sad smile which made 
her all the fairer. She never recog-nized any one but 
me, and nestling in my arms . . . would bestow on me 
the most endearing names. She spoke of Acadia and 
Louis in such terms that one could not listen to her 
without shedding tears. She fancied herself still the 
sw^eet girl of sixteen on the eve of marrying her 
chosen one, w^hom she loved with so much devotion 
and constancy. . . . Sinking at last under the ravages 
of her mental disease she expired in my arms." 

Such is the story of Emmeline Labiche, as told to 
Longfellow^ by Governor, afterwards Senator, Alex- 
ander Mouton, of Louisiana, and as handed down in 
the records and traditions of the Mouton family, in 
which the young girl found home, shelter and loving- 
kindness. 



APPENDIX. 



APPENDIX 



LETTER FROM HON, C. H. MOUTON. 

Lafayette, June 7th, A.D. 1903. 
Db. George P. Bible. 

Dear Sir: Your kind and courteous letter of the 20th of 
April was appreciably received and considered. Sickness in 
my family is cause of the delay for not having answered sooner. 
I am glad to be able to give you some information concerning 
the Acadian exiles who have settled in the prairies between the 
Bayou (River) Teyche (now written Teche) and the River 
Mermento, in southwestern Louisiana. Among their numerous 
descendants, I know the Benoit, Blanchard, Boutin, Bourgue, 
Boudro, who write their name " Boudreau," Brasseux, Breaux, 
Comeau, Douarou, Doucet, Dugas, Dupuy or Dupuis, Gautereau, 
Girouard, Grange, Hebert, the Broussard, Landry, Leblane, 
Lejeune, Martin, Melanson (who write their name Melangon), 
the Mouton, the Richard, Roy, Teriau (written here, Theriot), 
Thibodeaux, Trahan, Vincent. The name of Broussard is not 
on the list, kindly enclosed in your letter. 

In answer to your question I will state that my grand- 
father, Jean (John) Mouton, was born at Port Royal, Acadia, 
about the year 1753 or 1754; his father's name was Salvator 
Mouton, an Acadian exile, who came to Louisiana and set- 
tled on the Mississippi River, in what is called St. Charles 
parish, a few miles above New Orleans, in what year I cannot 
state, but by family tradition I know that my grandfather 
was a young boy (as we Acadians say, "Un petit gargon") 
when his father came to Louisiana. When old Salvator Mouton 
died my grandfather was a minor. When a man he came to 

10 



146 Appendix. 

St. Martin parish, on the river Teyche, near the Evangeline 
Oak of Longfellow, and there met an old Acadian exile woman, 
widow of Antoine Borda, and he there married a daughter of 
said widow Borda. 

After his marriage, Widow Borda came and lived with 
grandfather, and died at the age of one hundred and four years. 

The widow Borda, whose family name was Martin, was a 
widow Robichaud, at the time she was exiled from Acadia; she 
had two children (girls). How and when she reached the 
parish of St. Martin, I cannot say; but after she got to St. 
Martin (then the county of Attakapas) she contracted a second 
marriage with Dr. Antoine Borda, a Frenchman, and there my 
grandfather met the family and married. I know by family 
tradition that old Mrs. Borda, my great-grandmother, was 
very poor and destitute when she reached St. Martin, on the 
River Teche. Herewith I send a sketch or diagram of the 
wooden box, in which she carried her clothes and her children's, 
when they came from Acadia to Louisiana, which said wooden 
box is kept by our family as an heirloom. 

I will be eighty years old next December, and as you can see 
I write with difficulty, but if you desire more information on 
this subject, if I can give it, I will do so with pleasure. 
I am, sir, respectfully yours, 

C. H. MOUTON. 







^ -3-6 V 



-- >, 





A 


A 












n^pTH OF 
DIVISION 

fNSCRlPT'iON 



Wooden Chest Belonging to an Acadian Exile. 



148 Appendix. 

LETTERS FROM HON. JOSEPH A. BREAUX, ASSOCIATE JUSTICE OF 
THE SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA. 



New Orleans, March 25th, 1903. 

Mr. Geobge p. Bible, 

Philadelphia, Pa. 

Dear Sir: Yesterday I received your letter dated the 20th 
inst. 

In answer to your inquiry, I will state that I have always 
understood that nearly all the Acadians who came to Louisiana 
came first to Georgia and North Carolina, and afterward to 
Louisiana, settling on the Mississippi Eiver, near Baton Rouge. 
Others came afterward and found their way to the Acadian 
Coast on the Mississippi, and others went to the interior on 
the Tgche River, of the Attakapas, and in the prairies of 
Opelousas. 

A singular phase followed the expulsion ; not many years had 
passed, when the Acadians that had returned to Nova Scotia and 
New Brunswick, as well as Prince Edward Island, joined the 
English in defending the Canadian Territory and in opposing 
the American colonists. While down here, the Acadian sym- 
pathized with the colonists and a number became soldiers of 
Galvez, who was the Spanish Governor of the Colony of 
Louisiana, and opposed the English, and fought them at several 
places. 

I am confident that the Acadians did not all come by Avay of 
Georgia and North Carolina, nor do I believe that they all 
came about the same time. It is probable that a few families 
came at first and others m course of time followed. They in 
time, as you doubtless are aware, became good citizens of the 
United States of America. 

If you wish any particular information regarding the 



Ajjpendix, 149 

Acadians, let me know. It will afford me pleasure to attend 
to any request you may deem proper to make. 
Sincerely yours, 

Joseph A. Bbeaux. 



New Orleans, April 10th, 1903. 
Dr. George P. Bible, 

Temple Building, Phila., Penna. 

Dear Sir: I must say that the Acadians in the South have 
not entirely preserved the simplicity which marked the original 
Acadian and his descendants in the Northeast. The varied 
contracts have to some extent lost him his identity as an 
Acadian. 

He is loyal as a citizen and usually a fairly good neighbor. 

Many of them are poor, and our school system, efficient 
enough in cities, is wanting in the country. 

The young men (nearly all) speak the English, and know 
very little of the Acadians. They (many of them) avoid all 
reference to Acadians, and would be pleased to be known ex- 
clusively as Americans, forgetting that the good citizenship of 
our country is made up of the best elements of all nationali- 
ties. 

I send you a copy of the Times -Democrat. On the 12th 
page you will find an incident prettily told of Desire LeBlanc, 
of Vermillion, a descendant of an Acadian. It may interest 

you. 

By the way, I understand that the LeBlancs, after the ex- 
pulsion, came here by way of Philadelphia (where they re- 
mained a few years), and one of them became influential in 
your city. 

Sincerely yours, 

Joseph A. Bbeaux. 



150 Appendix, 

EXTRACT FKOM NEW OEIiEANS " TIMES-DEMOCEAT." 

The following sketch from the New Orleans Times -Democrat, 
told simply and beautifully, will give one an insight into a 
phase of character of at least one modern Acadian, who has 
not degenerated from the simplicity of his fathers or the un- 
ostentatious charity, which anticipates the wants, and gives 
before being asked : 

SIMPLE "CAJAN" A SAMARITAN TO ALL HIS POOR 
NEIGHBORS. 

DESIRE JJE BLANC TAKES PLEASURE IN BRINGING THE AFFLICTED 

OF INDIAN BAYOU TO CHARITY HOSPITAL FOR 

TREATMENT. 

At daylight yesterday morning a reporter of the Times - 
Democrat saw a man sneaking out of the building at 1318 
Canal Street. As the man got to the corner he hesitated as if 
undecided what street he would take. Presently he turned in 
the direction of the Charity Hospital, the reporter following. 
Two blocks away the man was halted and asked the time. The 
stranger pulled out his watch, gave the desired information, 
and in the next breath invited the reporter to join him in a 
drink. Instead of shadowing "a dangerous and suspicious 
character," below is a short account of one of the most re- 
markable characters in this or any other State. 

Desire LeBlanc is a " Creole " living at Indian Bayou, Ver- 
million parish. He was born near his present home, is mar- 
ried and has six children. In the Catholic Cemetery, near 
Indian Bayou, are six graves, where lie the bodies of six other 
children. Mr. LeBlanc owns a little rice farm. In this field 
he has toiled for thirty years, sometimes harvesting good crops 
and in other years meeting with total failure. But he has 
saved a few dollars, owes no man money or ill-will, and in all 



Appendix. 151 

that country there is none so honored and loved as this simple, 
uneducated and grizzled " Cajan." Ten years ago he visited 
New Orleans for the first time. He had heard of the big Cliar- 
ity Hospital, and he wanted to see it. Ten days later he came 
again, this time bringing his wife, then an invalid. She was 
in the hospital for two months, and was discharged as cured. 
Returning home, Mr. LeBlanc found one of his children ill, and 
back he came with another patient. And so on, he has been 
making trips to New Orleans on an average of twice a montii 
for all these years, each time bringing some one of his neigh- 
bors needing medical attention. He speaks English brokenly. 

" I pay their expenses, too," he told the reporter. " Of 
course, there is no charge at the hospital, but pay the railroad 
fares. Few of my neighbors are financially able to make even 
so short a trip. Even if they were, would not permit them to 
pay. It is my chief pleasure in life — such acts as these and 
the love of my family. I have brought men, women and chil- 
dren here in all sorts of conditions. Not long ago I came with 
a little boy whose eyes had been eaten out by smallpox. He 
would have died in another day. His eyesight is gone, but 
otherwise he is well. 

" Who did I bring this time ? Adon Boullet, aged three years. 
On Monday, while I was plowing, the word came that the little 
fellow had swallowed some grains of corn and that one of these 
had lodged in his windpipe. Before I reached the Boullet home 
the grain had been dislodged, but the child was seized with 
convulsions. When the next train passed I was on board with 
the boy. The doctors at the hospital say there is no further 
danger. But I must go to see him before I leave. I would 
stay for another day, but you see some one else might get 
sick at Indian Bayou, and they would cry, 'Where is Desire 
LeBlanc ? ' 

" How much money and time these trips have cost ? Oh, I 



152 Appendix. 

do not keep account of such trifles. The time is nothing, and 
the money? Ah! I have enough always to buy wine for the 
wife, books for the children and pay for the church. And those 
children — you must come to see them sometime — three girls 
and three boys, the finest children in the world. I can not 
read or write, but they read for me and write to New Orleans 
for me when some of my friends here are sick. 

" Come to Indian Bayou," he said, " and ask the first person 
you meet where Desire LeBlanc lives, and while he is directing 
you to my home he will tell you that I am the happiest man 
in the parish." 

At sunrise Mr. LeBlanc was at the hospital inquiring as to 
the condition of Adon Boullet. At eight o'clock he took a train 
for Indian Bayou, where, he said, his wife and six children 
would be at the depot to meet him. 

And this is the man the reporter took for a thief. He came 
tiptoeing out of the boarding house because he did not wish 
to awaken the other guests. 



STATISTICS OF THE DEPORTATION. 

Colonel Winslow, under whose supervision the deportation 
from the Minas district was made, gives the following sum- 
mary of persons deported: 

Males, from ten years 446 

Deputies, prisoners at Halifax 37 

Men 483 

Women, married 337 

Sons 527 

Daughters 576 

1,440 

Old and infirm, not mentioned 820 

2,743 



Appendix. 153 

The following is the list of villages and the number of in- 
habitants of each, as made by Winslow. The villages are, in 
most instances, family names. The list shows a difference in 
numbers between his general summary and the total in the 
villages, but this is accounted for by the fact that isolated 
families were taken and not assigned to any village. 

NORTH OF MINAS OR CORNWALLIS RIVER. 

Villages. No. of 

Inhabitants. 

De Landry 39 

Claude Terriau 41 

Des Landry 4 

Granger 44 

Jean Terriau 65 

Comeau 74 

Michel 27 

Aucoine 77 

Trahan 38 

Poirier 20 

Saulnier 32 

Brun 64 

Dupuis 65 

Hebert 19 

Francois 3 

Pinons 7 

Antoine 51 

Claude 80 

Herbert Co Ero 74 

Gaud Landry 74 

Navie 3 

SOUTH OF MINAS OR CORNWALLIS RIVER. 

Jean Le Blanc 30 

Pierre Le Blanc 60 

Grand Le Blanc 42 

Richar 49 

Pinour 2 



154 Appendix, 



Villages. No. of 

Inhabitants. 
GASPEREAU. 

Melanson 52 

Michel 57 

ABOUT GRAND-PR]&. 

De Pitit (Gotro) 94 

(omitted) canard. 

Landry 15 

CANARD. 

Comeau 4 

Granger 4 

Pinue 3 

Hebert 5 

La Coste 2 

GRAND-PRf:. 

Grand-Pre 20 

GASPEREAU. 

Gaspereau 41 



All the names except those in italics are the names of indi- 
viduals or families. . . . The principal villages on the south 
side of Minas River, now the Cornwallis, sometimes called 
Minas or Grand-Pre, were Gotro, Pierre Le Blanc, Michel, 
Melanson, Grand Le Blanc, Gaspereau, Jean Le Blanc and 
Grand-Pre. On the north side of the same river, the villages 
of the Canard section, sometimes called Habitant and Canard, 
because the settlements were mainly on the Habitant and 
Canard Rivers, were named: Claude Landry, Antoine, Hebert, 
Dupuis, Brun, Trahan, Saulnier, Poirier and Hebert. The re- 
maining villages had less than twenty inhabitants. 

At Grand-Pr$ and Gaspereau and along the south side of 
Minas the common names of the Acadians in the order of their 



Appendix. 155 

frequency were: Le Blane, Melanson, Hebeit, Richard. On the 
north side the common names were Boudro, Comeaii, Landry, 
Aucoine, Granger, Terriau, Dupiiis. The name Melanson, so 
common among the Acadians to-day, was no doubt of Scotch 
origin, and belonged to one of Sir William Alexander's 
colonists who came to Acadia about 1638. The larger number 
of the settlers who became the progenitors of the thousands of 
Acadians now living in the maritime provinces [and this is true 
of the Acadian of Louisiana] came out from Rochelle, Sain- 
tonge and Poiteau, on the west coast of France, between 1633 
and 1638. ... In 1671, when the first census of Acadia was 
taken of which we have any record, there were seventy-five 
families, made up of four hundred and forty persons. In 1686 
Minas had been settled about fifteen years, and had a popula- 
tion of fifty-seven persons. In 1714, the people numbered 
eight hundred and seventy-eight. In 1755 there were at least 
ten thousand Acadians in Minas. The following is a list of 
names at Minas at the time of the deportation: Alin, Aucoine, 
Apigne, Boudro, Blanchard, Bourg, Belmere, Brun, Babin, Bras- 
sin, Brane, Bugeant, Benois, Bouns, Belfontaine, Bouer, Braux, 
Brassaux, Commeau, Capierre, Celestin, Celve, Daigre, Diron, 
Dour, Duzoy, David, Dins, Dupuy, Duon, Dupiers, Doulet, 
Dusour, Doucet, Lapierre, Leuron, Le Blane, Le Clane, Le Blun, 
Lebar, Leprince, Labous, Lesour, Landry, Michel, Massier, 
Munier, Mengean, Richard, Rour, Sosonier, Sorer, Sapin, Sonier, 
Semer, Terriot, Trauhase, Tibodo, Tunour, Trahan, Tilhard, 
Vinson. 



156 Appendix. 



ACADIANS PAYING QUIT-RENTS, 1743 — 1752-3. 

The following Acadians were between the years 1743-1752-3 
paying quit rents. These names or a majority of them, are 
found in the preceding list, but appear there in their original 
French orthography. We give them here for the purpose of 
fixing the locations of the several families at these periods. 
It may be a matter of interest to their descendants, and an 
aid in tracing certain family genealogy. 



Appendix. 



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160 Appendix. 

LIST OF OBIGINAL GRANTEES OF LAND FROM THE 
GOVERNOR OF NEW BRUNSWICK. 

The following is a list of the original grantees of land from 
the Governor of New Brunswick, and includes families on both 
sides of the St. John's River. The list is taken from "Notes 
on Madawaska," by Rev. W. 0. Raymond: 

" The grantees of Acadian origin were Louis Mercure, 
Michel Mercure, Joseph Mercure, Alexis Cyr, Oliver Cyr, Marie 
Marguerite Daigie, Jean Baptiste Daigle, Paul Cyr, Pierre Cyr, 
Alexander Cyr, Jean Baptiste Thibedeau, Jr., Joseph Thibedeau, 
Etienne Thibedeau. The grantees of Acadian origin on the 
American side of the river were Simon Hebert, Paul Potier, 
John Baptiste Cyr, Jr., Frangois Cyr, Jr., Joseph Daigle, Sr., 
Joseph Daigle, Jr., Jaques Cyr, Frangois Cyr, Firmin Cyr, Sr., 
Jean Baptiste Cyr., Jr., Michael Cyr, Joseph Hebert, Antoine 
Cyr, Jean Martin, Joseph Cyr, Jr., Jean Baptiste Cyr, Sr., Fir- 
min Cyr, Jr., Jean Thibedeau, Sr., Joseph Mezerolle. In addi- 
tion to these there are several grantees, whose descendants 
claim to be of Acadian origin, and say ,their ancestors came 
from the lower country (pays-bas) ; but I am not able to de- 
termine whether the following are undoubtedly of Acadian 
origin or not, viz.: Louis Saufacon, Mathurin Beaulieu, Joseph 
Ayotte, Zacharie Ayotte, Alexander Ayotte. 

" The second grant, made in the year 1794, extended from 
Green River (with many vacancies) to a little below Grand 
River. The six names that occur in the former grant are 
omitted from the enumeration that follows. Several of the 
settlers in this grant are known to have lived at French vil- 
lage, on the Kennebecassis. The names of those Acadians who 
settled on the east side of the St. John are as follows: Oliver 
Thibedeau, Baptiste Thibedeau, Joseph Theriault, Joseph 
Theriault, Jr., Oliver Thibedeau, Jr., Jean Thibedeau, Firmin 
Thibedeau, Hilarion Cyr. . . . Those Acadians who settled on 
the American side are as follows: Gregoire Thibedeau, Louis 
La lilanc, Pierre Cormier, Alexis Cormier, Baptiste Cormier, 
Frangois Cormier, Joseph Cyr., Jr., Firmin Cyr, Joseph Cyr, 
Frangois Violette, Sr., and Augustin Violette." 



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